Debunking the Bloodline
Myths & Memes of the Genetic Matrix & Royal Lines
by Iona Miller, 2013
Pre-Print Prepared for Paranoia Magazine
Instead of creating light, we conceal in darkness, instead of lifting up, we expose the treasure to ridicule and contempt.
Instead of opening a way, we barricade it by an inextricable snarl of paradoxes.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 392-396
Myths & Memes of the Genetic Matrix & Royal Lines
by Iona Miller, 2013
Pre-Print Prepared for Paranoia Magazine
Instead of creating light, we conceal in darkness, instead of lifting up, we expose the treasure to ridicule and contempt.
Instead of opening a way, we barricade it by an inextricable snarl of paradoxes.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 392-396
Genetic mapping helps to show that a mutation from RH positive to RH negative occurred somewhere in the Basque area of Europe maybe as much as 40,000 years ago. So what happened then? Ice Age Polarity Reversal Was Global Event: Extremely Brief Reversal of Geomagnetic Field, Climate Variability, and Super Volcano.
ScienceDaily — Some 41,000 years ago, a complete and rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field occurred. Magnetic studies of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences on sediment cores from the Black Sea show that during this period, during the last ice age, a compass at the Black Sea would have pointed to the south instead of north. Moreover, data obtained by the research team formed around GFZ researchers Dr. Norbert Nowaczyk and Prof. Helge Arz, together with additional data from other studies in the North Atlantic, the South Pacific and Hawaii, prove that this polarity reversal was a global event. Their results are published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. What is remarkable is the speed of the reversal: "The field geometry of reversed polarity, with field lines pointing into the opposite direction when compared to today's configuration, lasted for only about 440 years, and it was associated with a field strength that was only one quarter of today's field," explains Norbert Nowaczyk. "The actual polarity changes lasted only 250 years. In terms of geological time scales, that is very fast." During this period, the field was even weaker, with only 5% of today's field strength. As a consequence, Earth nearly completely lost its protection shield against hard cosmic rays, leading to a significantly increased radiation exposure.
ScienceDaily — Some 41,000 years ago, a complete and rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field occurred. Magnetic studies of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences on sediment cores from the Black Sea show that during this period, during the last ice age, a compass at the Black Sea would have pointed to the south instead of north. Moreover, data obtained by the research team formed around GFZ researchers Dr. Norbert Nowaczyk and Prof. Helge Arz, together with additional data from other studies in the North Atlantic, the South Pacific and Hawaii, prove that this polarity reversal was a global event. Their results are published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. What is remarkable is the speed of the reversal: "The field geometry of reversed polarity, with field lines pointing into the opposite direction when compared to today's configuration, lasted for only about 440 years, and it was associated with a field strength that was only one quarter of today's field," explains Norbert Nowaczyk. "The actual polarity changes lasted only 250 years. In terms of geological time scales, that is very fast." During this period, the field was even weaker, with only 5% of today's field strength. As a consequence, Earth nearly completely lost its protection shield against hard cosmic rays, leading to a significantly increased radiation exposure.
The Mystery of Rh-Negative Blood
Genetic mapping helps to show that a mutation from RH positive to RH negative occurred somewhere in the Basque area of Europe maybe as much as 40,000 years ago. So what happened then? Ice Age Polarity Reversal Was a Global Event: Extremely Brief Reversal of Geomagnetic Field, Climate Variability,
and Super Volcano.
Such a global event greatly increases the possibilities of mutations and turning off of genes -- gene conversion and gene deletion, normal genetic processes -- a change in molecular structure. A repressed gene is turned off. This process is not externally "introduced"; it is a natural molecular process. Pseudo-scientific confabulation about Rh- produce no credible sources, but merely repeat internet memes or Belief Systems (BS).
Most mammals only have one RH gene, whose position corresponds to the human RHCE gene. The RHD gene arose from the duplication of an ancestral RH gene during mammalian evolution. An RHD deletion occurred9 during the evolution of hominids, so that many modern humans completely lack the RHD gene. This haplotype (glossary) is the leading cause of the D negative phenotype worldwide.
The human genome—our complete set of genetic information—includes thousands of genes. Some of the very first human genes to be identified were those that control blood type.
ABO blood groups and the Rh blood groups.
The Rh blood group is determined by a single gene with two alleles—positive and negative.
The positive (Rh+) allele is dominant, so person with Rh+/Rh+ or Rh+/Rh− are Rh- positive.
Individuals with two Rh− alleles are Rh-negative.
The ABO blood group has three alleles IA, IB, and i. Alleles IA and IB are codominant.
These alleles produce molecules known as antigens on the surface of red blood cells.
The RH alleles can be grouped according to their molecular structure. For the most part, these groups show point mutations (SNP, single nucleotide polymorphisms) which cause missense, nonsense, frame shift or splice site mutations (glossary).
Let’s discuss the Rhesus blood group system first. This system has multiple antigens, but the most important is encoded by the RHD locus, and is called RhD or simply Rh factor. The phenotypes associated with the RHD locus are either the presence of Rh factor (Rh positive) or the absence of the Rh factor (Rh negative).
RHD-CE-D hybrid alleles are often formed by gene conversion. http://www.nature.com/scitable/popular-students-page/68
Active genes can turn other genes on or off, including themselves.
Human traits are not always controlled by a single gene; sometimes the environment [epigenetics] may “create” a trait.
The examples of molecular changes and their effects on the D antigen (Table I) show how the D antigen phenotype correlates with the molecular structure.
NO MONKEYS, NO ALIENS, NO ENKI
The genes for bloodtype and Rh factor are not even on the same chromosomes.
Rh factor has NOTHING to do with "monkey genes". but comes from the animals used to test the process.
Humans, chimpanzees and monkeys share DNA but not gene regulatory mechanisms. Up to 40 percent of the differences in the expression or activity patterns of genes between humans, chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys can be explained by regulatory mechanisms that determine whether and how a gene's recipe for a protein is transcribed to the RNA molecule that carries the recipe instructions to the sites in cells where proteins are manufactured.
A given gene, in almost all cases, codes for a protein. When that gene is present and unmutated, the protein is present and effective. In the case of Rh factor, the protein is present ("Rh-positive") or not ("Rh-negative"). If you have one copy of the gene, you've got the protein, so it doesn't matter if you have one or two -- that's dominance. Only if you have NO copies of the gene can you be Rh-negative. Recessive traits are those that require the absence of a certain protein (or mutation) to show up; blue eyes, for instance, are recessive because it's only possible to have blue eyes in the (near-total) absence of melanin, so if you have any genes for producing melanin, your eyes won't be blue.
The clinically essential difference between Rhesus positive and Rhesus negative hinges on the presence or absence of the RhD protein in the erythrocyte membrane (D positive resp. D negative).
It is unusual for erythrocyte or other cell proteins to be lacking entirely in many humans. This particular genetic feature contributes to the strong antigenicity of the RhD protein. During duplication of the ancestral RH gene, two DNA segments were formed, known as the Rhesus box (Figure 1)9. The RHD deletion resulted from an unequal crossover (figure 3), which occurs when two DNA segments are highly homologous, such as those of the Rhesus box. The RHD negative haplotype commonest among Europeans is characterized by a hybrid Rhesus box. Subtle molecular differences between the various forms of the Rhesus box are used for genetic testing.
Aside from lack of the RhD protein, the D negative phenotype is caused mainly by a series of changes in the RhD protein, which in turn change the phenotype of the D antigen.
The RhD protein traverses the erythrocyte membrane several times, leaving only part of the protein exposed at the surface (Figure 2). If an amino acid is substituted in a portion of the RhD protein which is located at the outer surface of the erythrocyte membrane, single epitopes of the D antigen can be lost or new antigens can be formed.
The structure of the RH gene site facilitates gene conversions (figure 4)10. In the RHD gene some homologous exons of the RHCE gene will be inserted, forming a hybrid Rhesus allele which expresses a corresponding hybrid protein. This is how the D categories III to VI arose. The changes usually affect a long string of amino acids, which is always located on the erythrocyte surface.
If an amino acid substitution is located within the erythrocyte membrane or the cytoplasm, this will result in a weak D phenotype (figure 2)11. Integration of the RhD protein into the membrane will be hindered, leading to quantitative weakening of the D antigen. There is usually no qualitative change, and hence no anti-D immunization. The weak D type 1 is the commonest in Europe. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2535884/
TARGET GENES CAN BE TURNED OFF BY RADIATION AND EPIGENETICS
Lowered Field Strength > Geomagnetic Excursion > Increased Cosmic Ray & Solar Bombardment > Genetic Mutation
ScienceDaily — Some 41,000 years ago, a complete and rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field occurred. Magnetic studies of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences on sediment cores from the Black Sea show that during this period, during the last ice age, a compass at the Black Sea would have pointed to the south instead of north. Moreover, data obtained by the research team formed around GFZ researchers Dr. Norbert Nowaczyk and Prof. Helge Arz, together with additional data from other studies in the North Atlantic, the South Pacific and Hawaii, prove that this polarity reversal was a global event. Their results are published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. What is remarkable is the speed of the reversal: "The field geometry of reversed polarity, with field lines pointing into the opposite direction when compared to today's configuration, lasted for only about 440 years, and it was associated with a field strength that was only one quarter of today's field," explains Norbert Nowaczyk. "The actual polarity changes lasted only 250 years. In terms of geological time scales, that is very fast." During this period, the field was even weaker, with only 5% of today's field strength. As a consequence, Earth nearly completely lost its protection shield against hard cosmic rays, leading to a significantly increased radiation exposure.
The human RH locus appears to consist of two structural genes, D and CE, which map on the short arm p34-36 of chromosome 1 and specify a most complex system of blood-group genetic polymorphisms. Here we describe a family study of the Evans (also known as "D..") phenotype, a codominant trait associated with both qualitative and quantitative changes in D-antigen expression. A cataract-causing mutation was also inherited in this family and was apparently cotransmitted with Evans, suggesting a chromosomal linkage of these two otherwise unrelated traits. Southern blot analysis and allele-specific PCR showed the linkage of Evans with a SphI RFLP marker and the presence of a hybrid gene in the RH locus. To delineate the pattern of gene expression, the composition and structure of Rh-polypeptide transcripts were characterized by reverse transcriptase-PCR and nucleotide sequencing. This resulted in the identification of a novel Rh transcript expressed only in the Evans-positive erythroid cells. Sequence analysis showed that the transcript maintained a normal open reading frame but occurred as a CE-D-CE composite in which exons 2-6 of the CE gene were replaced by the homologous counterpart of the D gene. This hybrid gene was predicted to encode a CE-D-CE fusion protein whose surface expression correlates with the Evans phenotype. The mode and consequence of such a recombination event suggest the occurrence, in the RH locus, of a segmental DNA transfer via the mechanism of gene conversion. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1914783/
Genetic mapping helps to show that a mutation from RH positive to RH negative occurred somewhere in the Basque area of Europe maybe as much as 40,000 years ago. So what happened then? Ice Age Polarity Reversal Was a Global Event: Extremely Brief Reversal of Geomagnetic Field, Climate Variability,
and Super Volcano.
Such a global event greatly increases the possibilities of mutations and turning off of genes -- gene conversion and gene deletion, normal genetic processes -- a change in molecular structure. A repressed gene is turned off. This process is not externally "introduced"; it is a natural molecular process. Pseudo-scientific confabulation about Rh- produce no credible sources, but merely repeat internet memes or Belief Systems (BS).
Most mammals only have one RH gene, whose position corresponds to the human RHCE gene. The RHD gene arose from the duplication of an ancestral RH gene during mammalian evolution. An RHD deletion occurred9 during the evolution of hominids, so that many modern humans completely lack the RHD gene. This haplotype (glossary) is the leading cause of the D negative phenotype worldwide.
The human genome—our complete set of genetic information—includes thousands of genes. Some of the very first human genes to be identified were those that control blood type.
ABO blood groups and the Rh blood groups.
The Rh blood group is determined by a single gene with two alleles—positive and negative.
The positive (Rh+) allele is dominant, so person with Rh+/Rh+ or Rh+/Rh− are Rh- positive.
Individuals with two Rh− alleles are Rh-negative.
The ABO blood group has three alleles IA, IB, and i. Alleles IA and IB are codominant.
These alleles produce molecules known as antigens on the surface of red blood cells.
The RH alleles can be grouped according to their molecular structure. For the most part, these groups show point mutations (SNP, single nucleotide polymorphisms) which cause missense, nonsense, frame shift or splice site mutations (glossary).
Let’s discuss the Rhesus blood group system first. This system has multiple antigens, but the most important is encoded by the RHD locus, and is called RhD or simply Rh factor. The phenotypes associated with the RHD locus are either the presence of Rh factor (Rh positive) or the absence of the Rh factor (Rh negative).
RHD-CE-D hybrid alleles are often formed by gene conversion. http://www.nature.com/scitable/popular-students-page/68
Active genes can turn other genes on or off, including themselves.
Human traits are not always controlled by a single gene; sometimes the environment [epigenetics] may “create” a trait.
The examples of molecular changes and their effects on the D antigen (Table I) show how the D antigen phenotype correlates with the molecular structure.
NO MONKEYS, NO ALIENS, NO ENKI
The genes for bloodtype and Rh factor are not even on the same chromosomes.
Rh factor has NOTHING to do with "monkey genes". but comes from the animals used to test the process.
Humans, chimpanzees and monkeys share DNA but not gene regulatory mechanisms. Up to 40 percent of the differences in the expression or activity patterns of genes between humans, chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys can be explained by regulatory mechanisms that determine whether and how a gene's recipe for a protein is transcribed to the RNA molecule that carries the recipe instructions to the sites in cells where proteins are manufactured.
A given gene, in almost all cases, codes for a protein. When that gene is present and unmutated, the protein is present and effective. In the case of Rh factor, the protein is present ("Rh-positive") or not ("Rh-negative"). If you have one copy of the gene, you've got the protein, so it doesn't matter if you have one or two -- that's dominance. Only if you have NO copies of the gene can you be Rh-negative. Recessive traits are those that require the absence of a certain protein (or mutation) to show up; blue eyes, for instance, are recessive because it's only possible to have blue eyes in the (near-total) absence of melanin, so if you have any genes for producing melanin, your eyes won't be blue.
The clinically essential difference between Rhesus positive and Rhesus negative hinges on the presence or absence of the RhD protein in the erythrocyte membrane (D positive resp. D negative).
It is unusual for erythrocyte or other cell proteins to be lacking entirely in many humans. This particular genetic feature contributes to the strong antigenicity of the RhD protein. During duplication of the ancestral RH gene, two DNA segments were formed, known as the Rhesus box (Figure 1)9. The RHD deletion resulted from an unequal crossover (figure 3), which occurs when two DNA segments are highly homologous, such as those of the Rhesus box. The RHD negative haplotype commonest among Europeans is characterized by a hybrid Rhesus box. Subtle molecular differences between the various forms of the Rhesus box are used for genetic testing.
Aside from lack of the RhD protein, the D negative phenotype is caused mainly by a series of changes in the RhD protein, which in turn change the phenotype of the D antigen.
The RhD protein traverses the erythrocyte membrane several times, leaving only part of the protein exposed at the surface (Figure 2). If an amino acid is substituted in a portion of the RhD protein which is located at the outer surface of the erythrocyte membrane, single epitopes of the D antigen can be lost or new antigens can be formed.
The structure of the RH gene site facilitates gene conversions (figure 4)10. In the RHD gene some homologous exons of the RHCE gene will be inserted, forming a hybrid Rhesus allele which expresses a corresponding hybrid protein. This is how the D categories III to VI arose. The changes usually affect a long string of amino acids, which is always located on the erythrocyte surface.
If an amino acid substitution is located within the erythrocyte membrane or the cytoplasm, this will result in a weak D phenotype (figure 2)11. Integration of the RhD protein into the membrane will be hindered, leading to quantitative weakening of the D antigen. There is usually no qualitative change, and hence no anti-D immunization. The weak D type 1 is the commonest in Europe. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2535884/
TARGET GENES CAN BE TURNED OFF BY RADIATION AND EPIGENETICS
Lowered Field Strength > Geomagnetic Excursion > Increased Cosmic Ray & Solar Bombardment > Genetic Mutation
ScienceDaily — Some 41,000 years ago, a complete and rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field occurred. Magnetic studies of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences on sediment cores from the Black Sea show that during this period, during the last ice age, a compass at the Black Sea would have pointed to the south instead of north. Moreover, data obtained by the research team formed around GFZ researchers Dr. Norbert Nowaczyk and Prof. Helge Arz, together with additional data from other studies in the North Atlantic, the South Pacific and Hawaii, prove that this polarity reversal was a global event. Their results are published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. What is remarkable is the speed of the reversal: "The field geometry of reversed polarity, with field lines pointing into the opposite direction when compared to today's configuration, lasted for only about 440 years, and it was associated with a field strength that was only one quarter of today's field," explains Norbert Nowaczyk. "The actual polarity changes lasted only 250 years. In terms of geological time scales, that is very fast." During this period, the field was even weaker, with only 5% of today's field strength. As a consequence, Earth nearly completely lost its protection shield against hard cosmic rays, leading to a significantly increased radiation exposure.
The human RH locus appears to consist of two structural genes, D and CE, which map on the short arm p34-36 of chromosome 1 and specify a most complex system of blood-group genetic polymorphisms. Here we describe a family study of the Evans (also known as "D..") phenotype, a codominant trait associated with both qualitative and quantitative changes in D-antigen expression. A cataract-causing mutation was also inherited in this family and was apparently cotransmitted with Evans, suggesting a chromosomal linkage of these two otherwise unrelated traits. Southern blot analysis and allele-specific PCR showed the linkage of Evans with a SphI RFLP marker and the presence of a hybrid gene in the RH locus. To delineate the pattern of gene expression, the composition and structure of Rh-polypeptide transcripts were characterized by reverse transcriptase-PCR and nucleotide sequencing. This resulted in the identification of a novel Rh transcript expressed only in the Evans-positive erythroid cells. Sequence analysis showed that the transcript maintained a normal open reading frame but occurred as a CE-D-CE composite in which exons 2-6 of the CE gene were replaced by the homologous counterpart of the D gene. This hybrid gene was predicted to encode a CE-D-CE fusion protein whose surface expression correlates with the Evans phenotype. The mode and consequence of such a recombination event suggest the occurrence, in the RH locus, of a segmental DNA transfer via the mechanism of gene conversion. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1914783/
Lords of Argyll
In those early times the recollection of ancestral experiences was inherited, and, along with this, good or evil tendencies. In the blood of the descendants were to be traced the effects of the ancestors' tendencies. But, when the blood was mixed through exogamy, this close connection with ancestors was severed, and man began to live his own personal life. He began to regulate his moral tendencies according to what he experienced in his own personal life. Thus, in an unmixed blood is expressed the power of the ancestral life, and in a mixed blood the power of personal experience.... -Steiner, Occult Properties of Blood
At such times of suppressed consciousness he senses his ancestors within him, even as during his waking consciousness he senses the pictures of the outer world; that is to say, his forbears are active in his blood, and at such a time he dimly takes part in their remote life.... Everything, therefore, of which he has been the recipient as the result of sense-experience, lives and is active in his blood; his memory is stored with these experiences of his senses. Yet, on the other hand, the man of to-day is no longer conscious of what he possesses in his inward bodily life by inheritance from his ancestors. He knows naught concerning the forms of his inner organs; but in earlier times this was otherwise....
Such a man sensed what was within him, and as this inner experience was the result of heredity, he passed through the experiences of his ancestors by means of his inner faculty. He remembered not only his own childhood, but also the experiences of his ancestors. This life of his ancestors was, in fact, ever present in the pictures which his blood received, for, incredible as it may seem to the materialistic ideas of the present day, there was at one time a form of consciousness by means of which men considered not only their own sense-perceptions as their own experiences, but also the experiences of their forefathers... --Rudolph Steiner, Occult Properties of Blood
At such times of suppressed consciousness he senses his ancestors within him, even as during his waking consciousness he senses the pictures of the outer world; that is to say, his forbears are active in his blood, and at such a time he dimly takes part in their remote life.... Everything, therefore, of which he has been the recipient as the result of sense-experience, lives and is active in his blood; his memory is stored with these experiences of his senses. Yet, on the other hand, the man of to-day is no longer conscious of what he possesses in his inward bodily life by inheritance from his ancestors. He knows naught concerning the forms of his inner organs; but in earlier times this was otherwise....
Such a man sensed what was within him, and as this inner experience was the result of heredity, he passed through the experiences of his ancestors by means of his inner faculty. He remembered not only his own childhood, but also the experiences of his ancestors. This life of his ancestors was, in fact, ever present in the pictures which his blood received, for, incredible as it may seem to the materialistic ideas of the present day, there was at one time a form of consciousness by means of which men considered not only their own sense-perceptions as their own experiences, but also the experiences of their forefathers... --Rudolph Steiner, Occult Properties of Blood
Ubiquitous shared ancestry:
We found that even people living on opposite sides of Europe are genealogically closely related to each other over the past thousand years. Even pairs of people as far apart as the UK and Turkey share a chunk of genomic material 20% of the time. Since the chance that two people inherit genetic material from any one shared ancestor from 1,000 years ago is incredibly unlikely (<10-10), to explain such sharing we need these pairs of individuals to share many ancestors. In fact, they need to share a number of ancestors that is far larger than the size of European population, indicating that any pair of individuals share as ancestors all of the individuals alive back at the time in Europe, each many times over.
This strange idea that everyone is everyone’s ancestor was actually predicted about ten years ago by Joseph Chang (and collaborators) using maths and simulations. In hindsight this is intuitively clear, due to the rapidly expanding number of ancestors you have as you go back further and further in time. You have 2 parents, 4 grand-parents, 8 great-grandparents, and so on doubling every generation. After k generations you have 2^k ancestors, and this number grows so quickly that just a thousand years back (~30 generations) you have roughly 1 billion ancestors, which is far larger than the population size of the Earth (let alone Europe) back then. The consequence is that anyone alive 1,000 years ago who left any descendants will be an ancestor of every European. While the world population is larger than the European population, the rate of growth of number of ancestors quickly dwarfs this difference, and so every human is likely related genealogically to every other human over only a slightly longer time period. http://gcbias.org/european-genealogy-faq/
You can be related to the same ancestor multiple times. For instance, someone could be your great, great, great, great, great grandfather on your mother’s side and also on your father’s side. Because of this, you and I can share the same ancestral individual as a common ancestor many times over. People who share more common ancestors have more overlap this degree of relatedness. We can measure this difference through degree of shared genome, since even when everyone is a common genealogical ancestor, not everyone is a common genetic ancestor.
Also keep this in mind, once you get back to a certain point, the only records kept were for the upper classes, which usually meant the nobility. It is just a matter of numbers. We all have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents, 32 great-great-great grandparents, etc.
Charlemagne comes up as my 36th great grandfather. In theory, he is just one of my 274,877,906,944 36th great grandparents. Now, since there were not 274.8 billion people in the world in 775 (there are only 7 billion now), there are a lot of places where the family tree does not split. There is no doubt if you will, if you haven't already, find a lot of cousins, even first cousins, marrying.
If you are a direct descendant from some of the first settlers from England, many were members of noble families who where in positions where they would not inherit land because of their birth order or they were fleeing for religious or political reasons. Even if your tree is filled with indentured servants in the beginning, within a few generations in the new world, those distinctions of class mattered less and less and the grandchildren of indentured servants became wealthy in their own rights.
This is not an excuse to be sloppy or lazy in your own research, but it should ease your mind when you come across famous ancestors whose descendants now number in the 10s of millions.
We found that even people living on opposite sides of Europe are genealogically closely related to each other over the past thousand years. Even pairs of people as far apart as the UK and Turkey share a chunk of genomic material 20% of the time. Since the chance that two people inherit genetic material from any one shared ancestor from 1,000 years ago is incredibly unlikely (<10-10), to explain such sharing we need these pairs of individuals to share many ancestors. In fact, they need to share a number of ancestors that is far larger than the size of European population, indicating that any pair of individuals share as ancestors all of the individuals alive back at the time in Europe, each many times over.
This strange idea that everyone is everyone’s ancestor was actually predicted about ten years ago by Joseph Chang (and collaborators) using maths and simulations. In hindsight this is intuitively clear, due to the rapidly expanding number of ancestors you have as you go back further and further in time. You have 2 parents, 4 grand-parents, 8 great-grandparents, and so on doubling every generation. After k generations you have 2^k ancestors, and this number grows so quickly that just a thousand years back (~30 generations) you have roughly 1 billion ancestors, which is far larger than the population size of the Earth (let alone Europe) back then. The consequence is that anyone alive 1,000 years ago who left any descendants will be an ancestor of every European. While the world population is larger than the European population, the rate of growth of number of ancestors quickly dwarfs this difference, and so every human is likely related genealogically to every other human over only a slightly longer time period. http://gcbias.org/european-genealogy-faq/
You can be related to the same ancestor multiple times. For instance, someone could be your great, great, great, great, great grandfather on your mother’s side and also on your father’s side. Because of this, you and I can share the same ancestral individual as a common ancestor many times over. People who share more common ancestors have more overlap this degree of relatedness. We can measure this difference through degree of shared genome, since even when everyone is a common genealogical ancestor, not everyone is a common genetic ancestor.
Also keep this in mind, once you get back to a certain point, the only records kept were for the upper classes, which usually meant the nobility. It is just a matter of numbers. We all have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents, 32 great-great-great grandparents, etc.
Charlemagne comes up as my 36th great grandfather. In theory, he is just one of my 274,877,906,944 36th great grandparents. Now, since there were not 274.8 billion people in the world in 775 (there are only 7 billion now), there are a lot of places where the family tree does not split. There is no doubt if you will, if you haven't already, find a lot of cousins, even first cousins, marrying.
If you are a direct descendant from some of the first settlers from England, many were members of noble families who where in positions where they would not inherit land because of their birth order or they were fleeing for religious or political reasons. Even if your tree is filled with indentured servants in the beginning, within a few generations in the new world, those distinctions of class mattered less and less and the grandchildren of indentured servants became wealthy in their own rights.
This is not an excuse to be sloppy or lazy in your own research, but it should ease your mind when you come across famous ancestors whose descendants now number in the 10s of millions.
Fragment of Nightfall ~ Ilya Zomb
Throughout history the pomegranate fruit, with innumerable seeds, is identified with the female beginning and fertility -- a universal symbol of regeneration, self renewal, and victory over death. Its flowers are a symbol of love and the fruit - of noble birth and fertility...the vegetative form of the bloodline, whose animal icon is the dragon. Pomegranates, upon the tree of life hung fruit, “palmettes, pinecones, or pomegranates.”, represent the seeds of life. They are ritually consumed on Rosh Hashana because the pomegranate, with its numerous seeds, symbolizes fruitfulness. Pomegranates also symbolize the mystical experience of entering the "garden of pomegranates", celebrating the royal wedding of Tiphareth and Malkuth. The shape of the shape of the pomegranate influenced that of the royal scepter and [along with the date palm crown] the crown of European kings.
Throughout history the pomegranate fruit, with innumerable seeds, is identified with the female beginning and fertility -- a universal symbol of regeneration, self renewal, and victory over death. Its flowers are a symbol of love and the fruit - of noble birth and fertility...the vegetative form of the bloodline, whose animal icon is the dragon. Pomegranates, upon the tree of life hung fruit, “palmettes, pinecones, or pomegranates.”, represent the seeds of life. They are ritually consumed on Rosh Hashana because the pomegranate, with its numerous seeds, symbolizes fruitfulness. Pomegranates also symbolize the mystical experience of entering the "garden of pomegranates", celebrating the royal wedding of Tiphareth and Malkuth. The shape of the shape of the pomegranate influenced that of the royal scepter and [along with the date palm crown] the crown of European kings.
Carl Jung saw a garden of pomegranates when he was near to death:
“I myself was, so it seemed, in the Pardes Rimmonim, the garden of pomegranates, and the wedding of Tifereth with Malchuth was taking place. Or else I was Rabbi Simon ben Jochai, whose wedding in the afterlife was being celebrated. It was the mystic marriage as it appears in the Cabbalistic tradition. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was. I could only think continually, “Now this is the garden of pomegranates! Now this is the marriage of Malchuth with Tifereth!” I do not know exactly what part I played in it. At bottom it was I myself: I was the marriage. And my beatitude was that of a blissful wedding.” (Jung, 1961, p. 294)
“I myself was, so it seemed, in the Pardes Rimmonim, the garden of pomegranates, and the wedding of Tifereth with Malchuth was taking place. Or else I was Rabbi Simon ben Jochai, whose wedding in the afterlife was being celebrated. It was the mystic marriage as it appears in the Cabbalistic tradition. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was. I could only think continually, “Now this is the garden of pomegranates! Now this is the marriage of Malchuth with Tifereth!” I do not know exactly what part I played in it. At bottom it was I myself: I was the marriage. And my beatitude was that of a blissful wedding.” (Jung, 1961, p. 294)
The Royal We
The mathematical study of genealogy indicates that everyone in the world is descended from Nefertiti and Confucius, and everyone of European ancestry is descended from Muhammad and Charlemagne
Eleventh cousins share on average 60-parts-per-billion of DNA, or about 180bp (although with wide variation due to the spotty nature of meiotic recombination: in fact, 99.5% of 11th cousins will share no stretches of DNA through recent descent at all, while the remaining 0.5% will typically share tens of thousands of bases).
The mathematical study of genealogy indicates that everyone in the world is descended from Nefertiti and Confucius, and everyone of European ancestry is descended from Muhammad and Charlemagne
Eleventh cousins share on average 60-parts-per-billion of DNA, or about 180bp (although with wide variation due to the spotty nature of meiotic recombination: in fact, 99.5% of 11th cousins will share no stretches of DNA through recent descent at all, while the remaining 0.5% will typically share tens of thousands of bases).
In the Ancient Greek mythology,
the pomegranate was also known as the "fruit of the dead,"
and to have sprung from the blood of Adonis.
The wild pomegranate did not occur in the Aegean area in Neolithic times. It originated in eastern Iran and came to the Aegean world along the same cultural pathways that brought the goddess whom the Anatolians worshipped as Cybele and the Mesopotamians as Ishtar. The myth of Persephone, the goddess of the Underworld, also prominently features the pomegranate. The pomegranate also evoked the presence of the Aegean Triple Goddess who evolved into the Olympian Hera, who is sometimes represented offering the pomegranate. She embodies both aspects of the dual goddess, life-giving and death-dealing at once. The Titan Orion was represented as "marrying" Side, a name that in Boeotia means "pomegranate", thus consecrating the primal hunter to the Goddess. Other Greek dialects call the pomegranate rhoa; its possible connection with the name of the earth goddess Rhea. Known by their ancient name "panspermia," in some regions of Greece. In ancient times they were offered to Demeter and to the other gods for fertile land, for the spirits of the dead and in honor of compassionate Dionysus.
the pomegranate was also known as the "fruit of the dead,"
and to have sprung from the blood of Adonis.
The wild pomegranate did not occur in the Aegean area in Neolithic times. It originated in eastern Iran and came to the Aegean world along the same cultural pathways that brought the goddess whom the Anatolians worshipped as Cybele and the Mesopotamians as Ishtar. The myth of Persephone, the goddess of the Underworld, also prominently features the pomegranate. The pomegranate also evoked the presence of the Aegean Triple Goddess who evolved into the Olympian Hera, who is sometimes represented offering the pomegranate. She embodies both aspects of the dual goddess, life-giving and death-dealing at once. The Titan Orion was represented as "marrying" Side, a name that in Boeotia means "pomegranate", thus consecrating the primal hunter to the Goddess. Other Greek dialects call the pomegranate rhoa; its possible connection with the name of the earth goddess Rhea. Known by their ancient name "panspermia," in some regions of Greece. In ancient times they were offered to Demeter and to the other gods for fertile land, for the spirits of the dead and in honor of compassionate Dionysus.
Bruneel
Total direct ancestors = (2 to the nth power)- 2,
where n=the number of generations (counting yourself).
50 generations of ancestors = 2 quadrillion+ ancestors
40 generations = 2 trillion+ ancestors
30 generations = 2 billion,147 million+ ancestors
20 generations = 2,097,150 ancestors,
i.e. - [(2 to the 21st power) - 2] = [2,097,152)-2] = 2,097,150
15 generations = 65534 ancestors
14 generations = 32766 ancestors
13 generations = 16382 ancestors
12 generations = 8190 ancestors
11 generations = 4094 ancestors
10 generations = 2,046 ancestors
9 generations = 1022 ancestors
8 generations = 510 ancestors
7 generations = 254 ancestors
6 generations = 126 ancestors
5 generations = 62 ancestors
4 generations = 30 ancestors
3 generations of ancestors = 2 to the 4th power minus 2 = 14 ancestors. i.e. - [(2 to the 4th power) - 2] = [(16)-2] = 14
your 8 great grandparents, plus 6 from below
2 generations = 6 ancestors = your parents plus both sets of grandparents 2 to the
1 generations = 2 ancestors = your parents...i.e., [(2 to the 2 power) - 2] = [(4-2)-2] = 2
where n=the number of generations (counting yourself).
50 generations of ancestors = 2 quadrillion+ ancestors
40 generations = 2 trillion+ ancestors
30 generations = 2 billion,147 million+ ancestors
20 generations = 2,097,150 ancestors,
i.e. - [(2 to the 21st power) - 2] = [2,097,152)-2] = 2,097,150
15 generations = 65534 ancestors
14 generations = 32766 ancestors
13 generations = 16382 ancestors
12 generations = 8190 ancestors
11 generations = 4094 ancestors
10 generations = 2,046 ancestors
9 generations = 1022 ancestors
8 generations = 510 ancestors
7 generations = 254 ancestors
6 generations = 126 ancestors
5 generations = 62 ancestors
4 generations = 30 ancestors
3 generations of ancestors = 2 to the 4th power minus 2 = 14 ancestors. i.e. - [(2 to the 4th power) - 2] = [(16)-2] = 14
your 8 great grandparents, plus 6 from below
2 generations = 6 ancestors = your parents plus both sets of grandparents 2 to the
1 generations = 2 ancestors = your parents...i.e., [(2 to the 2 power) - 2] = [(4-2)-2] = 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5pBo7TKbk8&feature=c4-overview&list=UUnouYyjQ95buGKVs0-RbdgQ
The idea that virtually anyone with a European ancestor descends from English royalty seems bizarre, but it accords perfectly with some recent research done by Joseph Chang, a statistician at Yale University. The mathematics of our ancestry is exceedingly complex, because the number of our ancestors increases exponentially, not linearly. These numbers are manageable in the first few generations—two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents—but they quickly spiral out of control. Go back forty generations, or about a thousand years, and each of us theoretically has more than a trillion direct ancestors—a figure that far exceeds the total number of human beings who have ever lived.
In a 1999 paper titled "Recent Common Ancestors of All Present-Day Individuals," Chang showed how to reconcile the potentially huge number of our ancestors with the quantities of people who actually lived in the past. His model is a mathematical proof that relies on such abstractions as Poisson distributions and Markov chains, but it can readily be applied to the real world. Under the conditions laid out in his paper, the most recent common ancestor of every European today (except for recent immigrants to the Continent) was someone who lived in Europe in the surprisingly recent past—only about 600 years ago.
In other words, all Europeans alive today have among their ancestors the same man or woman who lived around 1400. Before that date, according to Chang's model, the number of ancestors common to all Europeans today increased, until, about a thousand years ago, a peculiar situation prevailed: 20 percent of the adult Europeans alive in 1000 would turn out to be the ancestors of no one living today (that is, they had no children or all their descendants eventually died childless); each of the remaining 80 percent would turn out to be a direct ancestor of every European living today. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/05/the-royal-we/302497/
In a 1999 paper titled "Recent Common Ancestors of All Present-Day Individuals," Chang showed how to reconcile the potentially huge number of our ancestors with the quantities of people who actually lived in the past. His model is a mathematical proof that relies on such abstractions as Poisson distributions and Markov chains, but it can readily be applied to the real world. Under the conditions laid out in his paper, the most recent common ancestor of every European today (except for recent immigrants to the Continent) was someone who lived in Europe in the surprisingly recent past—only about 600 years ago.
In other words, all Europeans alive today have among their ancestors the same man or woman who lived around 1400. Before that date, according to Chang's model, the number of ancestors common to all Europeans today increased, until, about a thousand years ago, a peculiar situation prevailed: 20 percent of the adult Europeans alive in 1000 would turn out to be the ancestors of no one living today (that is, they had no children or all their descendants eventually died childless); each of the remaining 80 percent would turn out to be a direct ancestor of every European living today. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/05/the-royal-we/302497/
THE APOCALYPTIC THEOPHANY from G. Moraeu
Before anyone leaps to meme-like conclusions about 'Reptilians', Anunnaki, Pharaohs, Merovingians, Templars, Gnostics, Illuminati, Pendragons, Desposyni, Cathars, Vikings, ancient aliens, holy blood, grail lines, Davidic descent, god-kings, or "Luciferian consciousness", they might do well to find out if they themselves carry such remnants in their own genes. They may be strangling in their own roots.
This author has traced her own bloodline back to Sumeria, and is an Advisor to DNA Decipher Journal, so speaks from some experience. Genealogy has become the world's biggest hobby, second only to the subject of sex online. The Underground Stream has spawned many underground scenes. Prior to the internet, our inherited connections were the global web of the genetic matrix, concealing many secrets of deep history and psychically linking us to one another.
Like most things, the widely-misunderstood Bloodline "conspiracy" looks different from inside its own culture than it does from outside. Those actively pursuing their own royal genealogies or involved in the numerous organizations, heritage groups, and scenes surrounding its lore often hold radically different viewpoints on the subject than articles generated and endlessly recycled online.
Those involved tend to be fascinated with certain eras, issues, or philosophies -- with magical personas, illustrious or nefarious ancestors, or alternative lifestyles. Some are metaphysical or spiritual, and others deeply religious; most are idiosyncratic, finding meanings only they value. The other side is profoundly skeptical, antagonistic or political, considering the bloodline pathologically malignant and controlling -- a nonhuman cabal of evil intent. Clearly, it means many things to many people.
Those who disbelieve the Grail paradigm might be surprised when it turns up in their family history. That is the best and perhaps only way to truly grasp its deeper meaning -- from the inside out. You can read the history of the world in your own genealogical lines, in the lives of your gr-grandparents. It usually only takes finding 4-5 generations to plug into the World Tree.
Exploiting the Gullible
Most people with any interest in the bloodline are invested in some theory -- perhaps, in ancient alien hybridization scenarios, the Sumerian story ala Sitchin. Political viewpoints range from monarchist to anarchist ideas about ruling elites, who have a stranglehold on social control and the bloodline.
David Icke was foremost in promoting his theory that the elite are shape-shifting Reptilians. He went so far as to accuse his ex-wife of being the same during their divorce. He brings a level of hysteria to the subject that has earned him big money. Salacious stories tend to sell. But it is just another means of demonization and projection. You have to look at the effects, not the content of the tale. Human oppression doesn't need aliens to exist.
It doesn't absolve sociopathic behavior by governments or leaders, but this may be the 'pot calling the kettle black' while exploiting the public itself. If Icke really cared about humanity, would he be charging for his so-called wisdom? But that is what charismatic tricksters do. So, who is the shape-shifter, here? Is it not the duplicitous teller of tales? Linking aliens, UFOs, and gov-crime conveniently expands the potential audience. Ironically, such appeals probably ignite their own reptilian brainstem and primal fears. The audience stares at him like deer in headlights.
But all these views about the bloodline miss the point, which is experiential and may first appear as a "calling" or mission. Having an opinion is emotional and cognitive. But diving into your history is deeply connective -- integrative.
Chances are, due to the mythic and emotional appeal of such arguments and factions, no rational facts will disuade anyone. They don't want to hear contrary evidence because they are highly invested in their own identities and certain narratives through such beliefs, right or wrong. Those who are ego invested have an even higher stake in being somehow 'special'.
It's All Relative
All of humanity is related many times over. Ancestors are those people you directly descend from, not extended family members. An ancestor or forebear is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent, and so forth). Ancestor is "any person from whom one is descended".
Direct-line research refers to genealogy focused on one's direct-line ancestors. However, as people are separated by more generations, their genetic relatedness plummets, exponentially. You share half of each parents' genes, one-fourth of your four grandparents, an eighth of eight greatgrandparents; a sixteenth of sixteen great-great-grandparents; and so on.
With twenty-five years per generation, you had around three billion ancestors at the signing of the Magna Carta, one hundred billion during the Norman invasion, two quintillion when the Roman Empire fell, and around 1,200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 at the birth of Jesus. Earth did not contain a fraction of that population then.
Collateral line is a term used to describe family relationships not in the direct line of descent such as siblings, spouses and children of siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Statistically all of us are descended from everyone. Allowing 25 years per generation, in the 62 generations since 450AD, we have had 4.6 x 1016 direct ancestors -- more people than have ever existed. So we must be related to everyone on earth many times over.
After only a few generations any personal genealogy links to that of the World Tree, which has been long established. This mirrors the process of our personal unconscious embedded in the deeper collective unconscious. Knowing your genealogy brings that invisible information into the conscious world. Sometimes that knowledge is shocking, destabilizing, or permanently alters once's sense of self. There is something to knowing exactly who you are and where you come from, relatively speaking.
Later monarchs are descended many times over from earlier ones. Research suggests that everyone in the West is descended from Charlemagne, c. 800 AD. Quite likely the entire world is descended from the Ancient Egyptian royal house, c. 1600 BC. As is almost everyone in the world from Confucius, c. 500 BC. and Genghis Khan. These findings do not necessarily have any implications for our DNA. Anthropologists claim everyone on earth is a 40th cousin. Any two people can find at least 1 common ancestor since about 800 AD.
To descend from someone does not mean you necessarily inherit any DNA from them. Probably sixty percent or more Americans are descended from kings. These findings do not conflict with the idea that most or all of your DNA is inherited from your local area. Even if you do descend from the Pharaohs, that does not mean this can be detected in your DNA. In fact, there may be no evidence at all of these findings in humanity's DNA. And yet the findings can still be true.
Game of Thrones
The Da Vinci Code made much of the so-called Roseline marking sacred sites in the European landscape. But the real Rose Lines are revealed in the royal genealogies with which it is interwoven. The Grail is the source of life, of generativity.
To transcend our small selves we need bigger stories. The deep context of our global heritage is it -- a mythic perspective suited to our age, culture, and sensibilities. Symbols are the currency of consciousness and the highest symbol and value is the Grail. It carries different meaning for each individual in their quest for self-knowledge.
Conspiracy fans project either their fascination or animosity for the Bloodline meme onto individuals and groups. Those accused have more in common with their accusors than some actual other self-segregated or self-selected group. The psyche tends to fill in the blanks in our conscious understanding with imaginal and mythic material that is at best symbolic or metaphorical, not literal.
There is no shortage of claimants to reincarnations of the famous, or being Mary Magdalene, Jesus, the Antichrist, the Men Who Would Be King, or various archetypal characters. Others bury themselves in pilgrimages, deciphering hidden codes or endlessly searching for treasure or relics, even bodies. All the symbolism of the unconscious can mobilize in a fugue, overwhelming the ego. Different memes (popular disinformation; viral ideas) capture our attention, sometimes to the point of obsession.
Nevertheless, the number of gullible followers increases because people often prefer a fairtytale to a more pragmatic truth, or statistical data. The appeal of such unsubstantiated or daisy-chained allegations is largely emotional. Many seek only corroborating evidence while ignoring basic research which shows different results, preferring misconceptions and self-delusion.
Those motivated by conspiratorial politics make a big deal out of the fact that most Presidential candidates can be traced to related families, failing to realize that millions of others with Colonial or Revolutionary families have the same heritage. If it's a "plot" it involves an enormous amount of tertiary people who carry the bloodline with or without any knowledge that is so. Some of them will naturally be those who look with suspicion upon the deeper relationships originating in the Middle Ages.
Tired Memes
There are many tired memes that are repeated over and over again, as if that makes them more valid. They cluster around wild tales of the Anunnaki and other ancient aliens, Rh- blood, and allegations of racial difference or superiority, etc. Most such notions originate with those unfamiliar with genealogy, their own descent, or the basics of biology.
Our early ancestors had only type O blood. Around 40KYA mutations likely occurred creating A and B blood types. Types A and B blood are from dominant genes, so they spread through the population and became more common. Genetic mapping shows a mutation from Rh positive to Rh negative occurred in the Basque area of Europe around 40,000 years ago.
Those mutations likely occurred creating blood types A and B. What could cause such mutations? In the Laschamp event, Earth's magnetic shield went down, exposing humanity to unusual amounts of cosmic radiation.
The Laschamp event was a short reversal of the Earth's magnetic field. It occurred 41,000 years ago during the last ice age and was first recognised, in the late 1960s, as a geomagnetic reversal recorded in the Laschamp lava flows in the Clermont-Ferrand district of France. The magnetic excursion has since been demonstrated in geologcial archives from many parts of the world. The period of reversed magnetic field was 440 years, with the transition from the normal field lasting 250 years. The reversed field was 75% weaker whereas the strength dropped to only 5% of the current strength during the transition. This resulted in greater radiation reaching the Earth, causing greater production of beryllium 10. Higher levels of carbon 14 would also have been produced during the low field times (Wikipedia).
Humans made a quantum leap into the savanna of East Africa roughly 45,000 years ago.
Some 41,000 years ago, a complete and rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field occurred that correlates with this period. During the last ice age, a compass at the Black Sea would have pointed to the south instead of north. This brief polarity change lasted only 250 years. As a consequence, Earth nearly completely lost its magnetosphere protection against hard cosmic rays, leading to significantly increased radiation exposure.
Genes mutate all the time. Mutations can be useful, harmful or neutral in their effects. In large populations, even helpful mutations tend to get “swamped” by non-mutant genes and vanish over time. Often they simply turn a gene off.
DNA records the existence, sometime between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, of a small group of people who are the ancestors of every person alive today. Our DNA is like a history encyclopedia. It tells us the stories of our forebearers from the first human who walked on the earth to YOU.
Different DNA regions can tell us whether our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals, while other regions tell us about the path our ancestors took out of Africa. It all depends on what you want to know and your ability to interpret the genetic code. No scientific definitions for genetic ethnicity are universally accepted.
The best way to determine the genetic relationships among people is to compare the sequences of the nucleotides in their DNA. Even with both a pedigree and genetic genealogy tests, the results require interpretation. Different members of the same family can embody and display different features. Saxons, Gauls, Picts, Franks, Iberians, and Celts merge in the melting pot.
University of Arizona geneticists discovered that the oldest known genetic branch of the human Y chromosome (300,000 years) is the hereditary factor determining male sex. So far, there is no exclusive nor conclusive DNA signature for the Grail lineage, and there are gaps in the legends, the histories, and the pedigrees which require interpretation, if not leaps of imagination. This is as true for those of unbroken dynastic Houses as it is for those of mixed blood.
Unlike the other human chromosomes, the majority of the Y chromosome does not exchange genetic material with other chromosomes, which makes it simpler to trace ancestral relationships among contemporary lineages. Two Y chromosomes carry the same mutation if they share a common paternal ancestor at some point in the past. The more mutations that differ between two Y chromosomes the farther back in time the common ancestor lived.
The latest research cautions against popular concepts of "mitochondrial Eve" or "Y chromosome Adam" that suggest all of humankind descended from exactly one pair of humans that lived at a certain point in human evolution. Results suggest that there are pockets of genetically isolated communities that collectively preserve a great deal of human diversity.
It has just been discovered that Native Americans have 13%-38% percent of the genome tracing back to western Eurasia. The ancestors of Native Americans split off from those of east Asians, they moved north. Somewhere in Siberia, they met another group of people coming east from western Eurasia. The two groups mingled, and their descendants eventually traveled east into North America. (Young)
Mitochondrial DNA is passed only through the female line. Mitochondria is a living organism, a separate life form from ourselves. They are dependent on us for life; we live in a symbiotic relationship. Mitochondrial DNA can live 15 generations. 15 generations of living mitochondria live inside you. Your 15 generation grandparents' living cells are in you. A mutant mtDNA will drift to fixation in a human matriline in 15 generations.
Most British ancestors arrived as hunter-gatherers, between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago. But it is rather silly to say that, “Our ancestors were Basques, not Celts". They are not lineage groups. They are ethnic groups that developed within the last 2,000 or 3,000 years. Basque STRs (genetic markers used to identify a DNA sequence) reveal 21 founding clusters, which could only have arrived direct from the Basque country. Their descendant twigs are unique to the British Isles.
Grail houses can have different Y haplogroups (paternal) as well as different mtDNA (maternal) signatures. While the “red gene” is significant, it may or may not distinguish noble ancestors. Typical medical problems of a line will not all present in one individual.
Neanderthals also had red hair, but studies show the mutation responsible for this differs from that which causes red hair in modern humans. Genetic drift simply favored the fair skinned who could absorb more Vitamin D in less-sunny northern climes. It helps in heat retention.
Natural selection is influenced primarily by two factors: the amount of genetic variation for a trait and the strength of selection on that trait. There is a genetic coupling of correlated traits.
Selection acting on one trait can cause expression in any correlated trait. Over longer periods natural selection structure will be determined by some combination of mutation, genetic drift, and migration. There can be substantial variation, with causes as ephemeral as famine and cosmic rays. The resulting traits are described as the "G-matrix".
We shouldn't underestimate the potential role of drift in explaining divergence among populations. Genetic studies show, inbreeding appears to generate more divergence in the details of the genetic architecture and distribution of changes.
Research shows that inbreeding changes the shape of the genetic covariance matrix. Such inbreeding is one of the primary characteristics of ancient lines, some of which historically included brother-sister marriage for conserving sovereignty, wealth and social control in the same families.
Mutation and genetic drift are known to change the amount of genetic variation for a trait. For example, genetics has demonstrated that all light-eyed people descend from a single individual with a specific mutation. Any given line can be quite different.
Divine Pride
Discovering old royal lines, many leap to royal ego trips, declaring themselves princes of their imaginal realms, seeking spurious titles. Other fancy themselves channels of ancient ancestors such as Mary Magdalene or even Jesus. While such identifications have always been popular, again based on emotional appeal and lack of critical thinking, they may be no more than 'misguided inner authority'.
The unconscious psyche can produce great wisdom; it can also churn out endless rubbish or Trickster distortions. Ego inflation is an over-expansion of the personality through identification with an archetype or, in pathological cases, with a historical or religious figure, which exceeds individual limitations.
Furthermore, no credible experts in DNA have come forward with idiosyncratic ideas that support the inflated memes about genes that paper many sites, which wallow in their own infallibility and self-assurance. Epigenetics has shown that the environment exerts a life-altering patterning effect on us as much or more than genetics. You get the genealogy you deserve.
Mystification abounds among those who don't know the basics of genetics or genealogy, and are persuaded by oft-repeated tales told with great enthusiasm and gravity, as if that makes them more reliable. The main virtue of such allegations is that they are unprovable one way or the other, making them ideal material for psychological projection, usually resulting in either inflation or paranoia about so-called 'elitists', or other such buzzwords for scapegoated groups.
At about 360 years, or just short of 15 generations an individual living today would carry only three thousands of 1% (00.003052%) of the DNA of an ancestor who was “pure” anything 15 generations ago. So even if one ancestor was indeed Mediterranean 15 generations ago, unless they continuously intermarried within a pure Mediterranean population, the amount would drop by 50% with each generation to the miniscule amount that would be found in today’s current generation. With today’s technology, this is simply untraceable in autosomal DNA. (Miller, Ancestral Memories)
Direct Ancestors
Life and consciousness are the ultimate emergent phenomena, but we still don't know their real origin, which remains veiled in Mystery. We are Cosmic psychophysical beings with a core reaching down into the microcosm of quantum dynamics and the still center of Zero-Point.
In the split second moment of conception, the two streams of genetic information from your parents, handed on from generation to generation over literally hundreds of millennia, combined in one single cell embodying your unique potential. It ensured that you became an unequaled living record of the lives and ways of your ancestors.
All of your ancient ancestors had one thing in common -- they were survivors who overcame daunting obstacles and hardships in their natural world. Your DNA is a legacy passed down to you from thousands of generations of fittest individuals. You have the best of their collective genes, all meticulously spelled out within the DNA of your genome. Within historical times, you have ancestors from whom you have no DNA.
Based on genome sequences, science now accepts the mixed heritage theory that modern humans interbred with other now-extinct species, including Neanderthal, Denisovian, and an unknown Asian species, possibly Homo heidelbergensis . It appears 30-50,000 years ago there were many hominid species, but only anatomically modern humans prevailed. But the relic biology of other hominids remains part of our genome. (Nature)
Your individual DNA fingerprint depends on how the chromosomes line up at conception. Some traits from both parents’ potentials will be there, while others get excluded. So, some siblings can be redheads, others not; some can have family medical problems, others not, some may be Rh neg., others not. Extensive historical knowledge of cultural practices and human migratory patterns helps us piece each story together. We may find things we never imagined and find no evidence for traits known within our lineage.
In genealogy the term "direct line" refers to a relationship of one person to another in a direct line. A direct-line ancestor is someone from whom you descend in a direct line, parent to child, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. Direct-line research refers to genealogy research focused on one's direct-line ancestors. Blood relations refer to the underground stream, the Red River of Memories that flows within us. The Blood is real and it's fresh; it flows in your veins.
By contrast, collateral line is a term used to describe family relationships not in the direct line of descent such as siblings, spouses and children of siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Researching direct-line ancestry is a common focus of genealogists and family history researchers. Proving a direct line of descent is generally required for membership in heritage societies. A mere seven generations back we have over 200 people in just our immediate, or father-mother, grandfather-grandmother line.
We are not just talking about the way you look, but about your ancestral memories, the complete set of instincts and response patterns that were responsible for the survival of those two genetic streams in the first place. The instincts and response patterns that you were actually born with are what Jung called the Collective Unconscious. Genealogy functions as a therapeutic portal, much like dreams or symptoms allow us to enter the imaginal dimension.
Epigenetics is the heritable changes in gene activity which are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence, rooted in our ancestors' experience.. Genes are expressed or silenced.
Genealogy is about Identity. It is an Art, a quest for the truth within. Harvesting the fruits of the Tree of Life mobilizes the soul for creative self-expression, self-discovery and self-healing. Much benefit and fulfillment comes simply by remembering, writing, tape-recording, sharing, painting, enacting or otherwise birthing them into the physical world.
Genealogy takes tremendous effort, like the Great Work. It affects the psyche with both historical and imaginal, known and unknown elements. It has its own magic, alchemy, and synchronicities. Some attempt to garner social status through their genealogies when other avenues elude them. Some in search of their identity wind up finding the Shadow.
Genealogy is about Identity. Some people who come to this practice use it to build a persona that becomes their main way of connecting in the world, an excessive commitment to a rather false image. Jung identified the persona as a social mask or psychological armor. Recovery, the aim of individuation, "is not only achieved by work on the inside figures but also, as conditio sine qua non, by a readaptation in outer life," according to Jung. We live in the present moment.
Genetics demonstrates that traits are not inherited preferentially from the ancestral matrix. While you may have a demonstrable royal line you inherit far more genetics from commoners who did not have their lines recorded. While it is true that the Y-haplotype is passed directly from father to son, generation after generation, we all also inherit the even more persistent mitochondrial DNA from our maternal ancestors, up to 400 generations, or so.
With mtDNA the surname changes each generation. Every once in a while a mutation -- a random, natural (and usually harmless) change -- occurs in the sequence of our mitochondrial DNA. Think of it as a spelling mistake. After one of these mutations occurs in a particular woman, she then passes it on to her daughters, and her daughters' daughters, and so on. Mothers also pass on their mitochondrial DNA to their sons, but the sons in turn do not pass it on. Geneticists use these markers from people all over the world to construct one giant mitochondrial family tree.
But even siblings may or may not inherit the slightest bit of any given ancestor or line. Thus, there is no single haplotype for the royal lines, nor any single identifying gene of that inheritance. Those with a royal genealogy may not have single "royal" gene in their genome, making any claims of extraordinary inheritance moot.
Your individual DNA fingerprint depends on how the chromosomes line up at conception. Some traits from both parents’ potentials will be there, while others get excluded. So, some siblings can be redheads, others not; some can have family medical problems, others not, some may be Rh neg., others not.
No one knows where the Rh-negative originates. Rhesus negative blood simply means that the blood doesn't have any Rhesus antigens on the surface of the red blood cells. Absence of a protein does not have to originate from anywhere.
The simplest explanation is that Rh-negative blood is a mutation on the first chromosome which rendered individuals incapable of producing functional Rhesus proteins. There are so few people with Rh-negative blood because it is a recessive trait. 5% of global population is currently Rh-Negative. But, they are 15% of the UK and USA. The Basque region is 50%. They descend from Paleolithic inhabitants of Western Europe prior to the arrival of farmers between 9,000 and 6,000 years ago.
Conceivably, only one sibling in a dozen might be Rh negative, descended from Rh positive parents. Even siblings get varied genetic packages and may not have genes from all the ethnicities or ancestors of their genealogical lines. There are different ethnic signatures. Some siblings might carry the signature of Native American ancestors; others not.
For example the Rh- blood type is a recessive gene, which may or may not express in a family. It could be ten or more generations since anyone has had Rh- blood in his family. But the RhD- version of the RhD gene is still there. To express both parents must carry the recessive gene.
Two parents who have O positive blood could easily have a child who is O negative. In fact, most children who are O negative have parents who are positive. Some or perhaps none of a couple's children may inherit the trait. So siblings can be mixed Rh- with other blood types that are dominant. It all depends on the selection of evolutionary forces and the gene-expression of epigenetics. Some people believe that O Negative blood is "pure" or "alien". Neither of these notions are true.
There’s a simple way of describing our genetic relatedness. Not only do all people have the same set of genes, but all groups of people also share the major variants of those genes. Geneticists have never found a genetic marker that is of one type in all the members of one large group and of a different type in all the members of another large group. That’s why ethnically targeted biological weapons would never work. Every group overlaps genetically with every other. We have cultural differences masquerading as race problems. (The Atlantic)
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/the-genetic-archaeology-of-race/2180/
There is no singular gene, mutation, allele, STR or SNP that tells the whole story. "single nucleotide polymorphisms" (SNPs, snips) make up about 90 percent of all genetic variation in the human genome. There are clusters of mutations that show deep relationship patterns of regional origin in some individuals. There is no DNA report that is 100% conclusive. They use the statistical mathematics of the educated guess.
Statistical and sampling flaws can lead to misinterpretations, based on too small of samplings and comparison studies. So, our own conclusions about our own DNA tests are, in part, interpretations of an interpretation. We can only draw inferences about the past based on the patterns observed in human DNA. And this is what keeps our quest alive.
Curated Lines
Most Europeans are descended largely from populations of farmers who started migrating out of the Middle East 9,000 years ago. As the sons and daughters of farming families left their parents’ farms and moved into new territory, they interbred with the existing hunter-gatherer populations, which produced gradients of genetic change radiating from the Middle East.
Only in mountainous areas unattractive to farmers—the Pyrenees homelands of the Basques, for example—were the genes of the indigenous peoples comparatively intact. Other historical events influenced the European gene pool. For example, a genetic trail leads from the area north of the Black and Caspian Seas into the rest of Europe. This trail links to the spread of the descendants of nomadic warriors and herders who first domesticated the horse, about 4,000 B.C.
Genetic genealogy is the application of genetics to traditional genealogy. Genetic genealogy involves the use of genealogical DNA testing to determine the level of genetic relationship between individuals and archaic tribes. It provides evidence of ancient tribes and migrations, but none about the actual people in genealogical lines, much less their names or history.
Furthermore, both are highly subject to interpretation of the results. It is a truism that genealogy without proofs is relatively useless, and even those lines accepted as "best practice" in genealogy have gaps and presumptions that ultimately lead back to mythical progenitors. Any viable genealogy must be curated with citations and evidence at every stage to have reliable validity.
Once you have located what is known as a gateway ancestor, one who links your family to a known noble ancestry, the door opens upon a world of recorded and published pedigrees that can lead back to royalty.
For countless Americans, whether they know it or not, and countless others of European ancestry, these gateways provide a tangible personal link to the highly inbred medieval world, in the form of descents from medieval kings, queens, popes, crusaders, troubadours, heroes, villains, and saints. Sooner or later, a gateway is likely to turn up in any sufficiently "bushy" New England family tree.
The relative importance of a gateway ancestor, for research purposes, depends on (1) the amount of new and traceable ancestry a gateway brings into the target population, and (2) the number of descendants that gateway has, which insures a large interest base. Based on these two factors, early immigrants with traceable royal ancestry are the most talked about gateways, but not really out of any class-oriented prejudice. Among early immigrants from Europe to the Americas, individuals with noble connections are likely to be traceable to a vastly larger number of ancestors, and thus sustain more interest and offer more connections as ‘gateways’.
Only 86 to 600 gateway ancestors may sound like a small target to shoot for. But remember, your chances are mathematically better than you think. By going back to 1650 or so, you are exploring 12 generations (12 x 30 years per generation = 360 years). Barring intermarriage of cousins, there would be 4096 (2 to the 12th power) ancestors in your 12th generation, and there were only a few thousand Western people on the eastern shores of America in 1650. So the chances that one of yours is a gateway ancestor are pretty good.
Next, you should review the line from your gateway ancestor up to Charlemagne. Most of these ascents go through the English or French kings, such as Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Do the Math & Get Over It
Most Americans with sizable New England Yankee, mid-Atlantic Quaker, or Southern "planter" ancestry are descended from medieval royals -- kings of England, Scotland, and France especially. Following those lines back into the mists of pre-history we find direct links to all so-called racial divisions. Most of our ancestors will remain "invisible". This is the main reason people emphasize ancestral nobles.
The ancient royal lines include Asian Siberians and Han Chinese dynasties, sub-Saharan African, and Muslim lines among the direct ancestors. Some will have Turkish, Persian, and Indian lines. Ultimately, this means 'race' is an illusion, other than the human race. The math backs this up, indicating we are all related within perhaps 40 generations.
Once you have located what is known as a "gateway ancestor", one who links your family to a known noble ancestry, the door opens to a world of recorded and published pedigrees that can lead back to royalty. A “Gateway Ancestor” is your immigrant ancestor who has legitimate or illegitimate royal descent. He or she, then, is your American “gateway” to royalty. "Gateway Ancestors" are colonists or immigrants who came to America that are descended of royal blood.
So you find you come from royalty -- get over it. The Pyramid Theory, a doubling of ancestors each generation back, claims you have 2048 ancestors by the 12th generation in your past, and possibly 60,000 direct ancestors going back to the Crusades. By Generation #40, you have more than one trillion ancestors!
We are at the end of a long and winding genetic journey that continues after and through us. We are probably all connected by the 25th gr-grandparents, if you do the math. There is a great possibility that we are descendants (or are related) from almost everyone alive some seven hundred years ago. With our parents' generation as Nº 1, the number of persons is 33,554,432.
That number is the theoretical result of (x2) progression, since many of those ancestors are the same persons. The genealogical evidence shows that many of the families intermarried for generations, producing a rich genealogical heritage. By the 12th generation you have possibly 60,000 direct ancestors going back to the Crusades.
Yet, somehow a determined gen can survive intact through all those descendants and become a particle of memory that will give you a dejá vu once in a while. Ancestral memories may not be of actual events - it is not to be confused with the idea of past life or reincarnation - but of reactive response patterns and emotional states brought about by environment. The past has gone and the future has yet to come. All you ever have is the present.
Mixed Blood
Eleventh cousins share on average 60-parts-per-billion of DNA, or about 180bp (although with wide variation due to the spotty nature of meiotic recombination: in fact, 99.5% of 11th cousins will share no stretches of DNA through recent descent at all, while the remaining 0.5% will typically share tens of thousands of bases). Given that the average person harbours about 10 recessive diseases, this gives about a 1 in 1.6 million chance of offspring developing a royal disease due to a piece of DNA shared between them.
In fact, eleventh cousins is a pretty low degree of relatedness, by the standard of these things. A study of inbreeding in European populations found that couples from the UK are, on average, as genetically related as 6th cousins (the study looked at inbreeding in Scots, and in children of one Orkadian and one non-Orkadian). 6th cousins share about 0.006% of their DNA, and thus have about a 0.06% chance of developing a genetic disease via a common ancestor. http://www.genomesunzipped.org/2011/04/inbreeding-genetic-disease-and-the-royal-wedding.php
So how do we relate to those we perceive as kin? In the struggle between society and family, the exponential mathematics of kinship ordinarily works to the advantage of society. Anthropologist Nancy Thornhill who contends that the prohibitions against incestuous marriages in most societies are not public-health measures aimed at reducing birth defects but the society's way of fighting back against extended families.
Successful coalitions and charlatans also pose as "kin". Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker warns misperceived kinship makes people vulnerable to manipulation and cultish mind control:
When it comes to individual people, then, kinship is in the mind of the beholder. That creates
an opening through which manipulators can flood people's kinship sense with cues that mimic the signals of biological relatedness. This kind of mind control is a strong temptation to anyone who wants to foster cohesion among people who are not closely related. Contrary to a shibboleth of the American right, family values do not uphold religion and country;
they subvert them. An extended family is a rival coalition to any other group, held together not by an ideology or social contract or common purpose but by brute genetic relatedness. And it is a coalition with an unfair advantage: relatives care for one another more than comrades do. Religions and political movements thus have to undermine family loyalties. Marxist collectivization and Moonie programming are obvious recent examples, but millennia before them Jesus momentously declared, "A man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." (Pinker)
It isn't merely our noble genealogy that makes us who we are. After all, we share most of it with millions of people. What is unique is our personal reaction to such knowledge and how our relationship with it evolves as we assimilate and integrate that expanded awareness -- the Mystery of the whole matter.
We need To Know genealogy much like we need to know physics and psychology to comprehend what matter is, as well as what makes us matter. We have thousands of ancestors whose lines are not preserved, making the small slice of royal descent largely archetypal as well as material. The part stands for the Whole - the cosmic process of Big History.
This author has traced her own bloodline back to Sumeria, and is an Advisor to DNA Decipher Journal, so speaks from some experience. Genealogy has become the world's biggest hobby, second only to the subject of sex online. The Underground Stream has spawned many underground scenes. Prior to the internet, our inherited connections were the global web of the genetic matrix, concealing many secrets of deep history and psychically linking us to one another.
Like most things, the widely-misunderstood Bloodline "conspiracy" looks different from inside its own culture than it does from outside. Those actively pursuing their own royal genealogies or involved in the numerous organizations, heritage groups, and scenes surrounding its lore often hold radically different viewpoints on the subject than articles generated and endlessly recycled online.
Those involved tend to be fascinated with certain eras, issues, or philosophies -- with magical personas, illustrious or nefarious ancestors, or alternative lifestyles. Some are metaphysical or spiritual, and others deeply religious; most are idiosyncratic, finding meanings only they value. The other side is profoundly skeptical, antagonistic or political, considering the bloodline pathologically malignant and controlling -- a nonhuman cabal of evil intent. Clearly, it means many things to many people.
Those who disbelieve the Grail paradigm might be surprised when it turns up in their family history. That is the best and perhaps only way to truly grasp its deeper meaning -- from the inside out. You can read the history of the world in your own genealogical lines, in the lives of your gr-grandparents. It usually only takes finding 4-5 generations to plug into the World Tree.
Exploiting the Gullible
Most people with any interest in the bloodline are invested in some theory -- perhaps, in ancient alien hybridization scenarios, the Sumerian story ala Sitchin. Political viewpoints range from monarchist to anarchist ideas about ruling elites, who have a stranglehold on social control and the bloodline.
David Icke was foremost in promoting his theory that the elite are shape-shifting Reptilians. He went so far as to accuse his ex-wife of being the same during their divorce. He brings a level of hysteria to the subject that has earned him big money. Salacious stories tend to sell. But it is just another means of demonization and projection. You have to look at the effects, not the content of the tale. Human oppression doesn't need aliens to exist.
It doesn't absolve sociopathic behavior by governments or leaders, but this may be the 'pot calling the kettle black' while exploiting the public itself. If Icke really cared about humanity, would he be charging for his so-called wisdom? But that is what charismatic tricksters do. So, who is the shape-shifter, here? Is it not the duplicitous teller of tales? Linking aliens, UFOs, and gov-crime conveniently expands the potential audience. Ironically, such appeals probably ignite their own reptilian brainstem and primal fears. The audience stares at him like deer in headlights.
But all these views about the bloodline miss the point, which is experiential and may first appear as a "calling" or mission. Having an opinion is emotional and cognitive. But diving into your history is deeply connective -- integrative.
Chances are, due to the mythic and emotional appeal of such arguments and factions, no rational facts will disuade anyone. They don't want to hear contrary evidence because they are highly invested in their own identities and certain narratives through such beliefs, right or wrong. Those who are ego invested have an even higher stake in being somehow 'special'.
It's All Relative
All of humanity is related many times over. Ancestors are those people you directly descend from, not extended family members. An ancestor or forebear is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent, and so forth). Ancestor is "any person from whom one is descended".
Direct-line research refers to genealogy focused on one's direct-line ancestors. However, as people are separated by more generations, their genetic relatedness plummets, exponentially. You share half of each parents' genes, one-fourth of your four grandparents, an eighth of eight greatgrandparents; a sixteenth of sixteen great-great-grandparents; and so on.
With twenty-five years per generation, you had around three billion ancestors at the signing of the Magna Carta, one hundred billion during the Norman invasion, two quintillion when the Roman Empire fell, and around 1,200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 at the birth of Jesus. Earth did not contain a fraction of that population then.
Collateral line is a term used to describe family relationships not in the direct line of descent such as siblings, spouses and children of siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Statistically all of us are descended from everyone. Allowing 25 years per generation, in the 62 generations since 450AD, we have had 4.6 x 1016 direct ancestors -- more people than have ever existed. So we must be related to everyone on earth many times over.
After only a few generations any personal genealogy links to that of the World Tree, which has been long established. This mirrors the process of our personal unconscious embedded in the deeper collective unconscious. Knowing your genealogy brings that invisible information into the conscious world. Sometimes that knowledge is shocking, destabilizing, or permanently alters once's sense of self. There is something to knowing exactly who you are and where you come from, relatively speaking.
Later monarchs are descended many times over from earlier ones. Research suggests that everyone in the West is descended from Charlemagne, c. 800 AD. Quite likely the entire world is descended from the Ancient Egyptian royal house, c. 1600 BC. As is almost everyone in the world from Confucius, c. 500 BC. and Genghis Khan. These findings do not necessarily have any implications for our DNA. Anthropologists claim everyone on earth is a 40th cousin. Any two people can find at least 1 common ancestor since about 800 AD.
To descend from someone does not mean you necessarily inherit any DNA from them. Probably sixty percent or more Americans are descended from kings. These findings do not conflict with the idea that most or all of your DNA is inherited from your local area. Even if you do descend from the Pharaohs, that does not mean this can be detected in your DNA. In fact, there may be no evidence at all of these findings in humanity's DNA. And yet the findings can still be true.
Game of Thrones
The Da Vinci Code made much of the so-called Roseline marking sacred sites in the European landscape. But the real Rose Lines are revealed in the royal genealogies with which it is interwoven. The Grail is the source of life, of generativity.
To transcend our small selves we need bigger stories. The deep context of our global heritage is it -- a mythic perspective suited to our age, culture, and sensibilities. Symbols are the currency of consciousness and the highest symbol and value is the Grail. It carries different meaning for each individual in their quest for self-knowledge.
Conspiracy fans project either their fascination or animosity for the Bloodline meme onto individuals and groups. Those accused have more in common with their accusors than some actual other self-segregated or self-selected group. The psyche tends to fill in the blanks in our conscious understanding with imaginal and mythic material that is at best symbolic or metaphorical, not literal.
There is no shortage of claimants to reincarnations of the famous, or being Mary Magdalene, Jesus, the Antichrist, the Men Who Would Be King, or various archetypal characters. Others bury themselves in pilgrimages, deciphering hidden codes or endlessly searching for treasure or relics, even bodies. All the symbolism of the unconscious can mobilize in a fugue, overwhelming the ego. Different memes (popular disinformation; viral ideas) capture our attention, sometimes to the point of obsession.
Nevertheless, the number of gullible followers increases because people often prefer a fairtytale to a more pragmatic truth, or statistical data. The appeal of such unsubstantiated or daisy-chained allegations is largely emotional. Many seek only corroborating evidence while ignoring basic research which shows different results, preferring misconceptions and self-delusion.
Those motivated by conspiratorial politics make a big deal out of the fact that most Presidential candidates can be traced to related families, failing to realize that millions of others with Colonial or Revolutionary families have the same heritage. If it's a "plot" it involves an enormous amount of tertiary people who carry the bloodline with or without any knowledge that is so. Some of them will naturally be those who look with suspicion upon the deeper relationships originating in the Middle Ages.
Tired Memes
There are many tired memes that are repeated over and over again, as if that makes them more valid. They cluster around wild tales of the Anunnaki and other ancient aliens, Rh- blood, and allegations of racial difference or superiority, etc. Most such notions originate with those unfamiliar with genealogy, their own descent, or the basics of biology.
Our early ancestors had only type O blood. Around 40KYA mutations likely occurred creating A and B blood types. Types A and B blood are from dominant genes, so they spread through the population and became more common. Genetic mapping shows a mutation from Rh positive to Rh negative occurred in the Basque area of Europe around 40,000 years ago.
Those mutations likely occurred creating blood types A and B. What could cause such mutations? In the Laschamp event, Earth's magnetic shield went down, exposing humanity to unusual amounts of cosmic radiation.
The Laschamp event was a short reversal of the Earth's magnetic field. It occurred 41,000 years ago during the last ice age and was first recognised, in the late 1960s, as a geomagnetic reversal recorded in the Laschamp lava flows in the Clermont-Ferrand district of France. The magnetic excursion has since been demonstrated in geologcial archives from many parts of the world. The period of reversed magnetic field was 440 years, with the transition from the normal field lasting 250 years. The reversed field was 75% weaker whereas the strength dropped to only 5% of the current strength during the transition. This resulted in greater radiation reaching the Earth, causing greater production of beryllium 10. Higher levels of carbon 14 would also have been produced during the low field times (Wikipedia).
Humans made a quantum leap into the savanna of East Africa roughly 45,000 years ago.
Some 41,000 years ago, a complete and rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field occurred that correlates with this period. During the last ice age, a compass at the Black Sea would have pointed to the south instead of north. This brief polarity change lasted only 250 years. As a consequence, Earth nearly completely lost its magnetosphere protection against hard cosmic rays, leading to significantly increased radiation exposure.
Genes mutate all the time. Mutations can be useful, harmful or neutral in their effects. In large populations, even helpful mutations tend to get “swamped” by non-mutant genes and vanish over time. Often they simply turn a gene off.
DNA records the existence, sometime between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, of a small group of people who are the ancestors of every person alive today. Our DNA is like a history encyclopedia. It tells us the stories of our forebearers from the first human who walked on the earth to YOU.
Different DNA regions can tell us whether our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals, while other regions tell us about the path our ancestors took out of Africa. It all depends on what you want to know and your ability to interpret the genetic code. No scientific definitions for genetic ethnicity are universally accepted.
The best way to determine the genetic relationships among people is to compare the sequences of the nucleotides in their DNA. Even with both a pedigree and genetic genealogy tests, the results require interpretation. Different members of the same family can embody and display different features. Saxons, Gauls, Picts, Franks, Iberians, and Celts merge in the melting pot.
University of Arizona geneticists discovered that the oldest known genetic branch of the human Y chromosome (300,000 years) is the hereditary factor determining male sex. So far, there is no exclusive nor conclusive DNA signature for the Grail lineage, and there are gaps in the legends, the histories, and the pedigrees which require interpretation, if not leaps of imagination. This is as true for those of unbroken dynastic Houses as it is for those of mixed blood.
Unlike the other human chromosomes, the majority of the Y chromosome does not exchange genetic material with other chromosomes, which makes it simpler to trace ancestral relationships among contemporary lineages. Two Y chromosomes carry the same mutation if they share a common paternal ancestor at some point in the past. The more mutations that differ between two Y chromosomes the farther back in time the common ancestor lived.
The latest research cautions against popular concepts of "mitochondrial Eve" or "Y chromosome Adam" that suggest all of humankind descended from exactly one pair of humans that lived at a certain point in human evolution. Results suggest that there are pockets of genetically isolated communities that collectively preserve a great deal of human diversity.
It has just been discovered that Native Americans have 13%-38% percent of the genome tracing back to western Eurasia. The ancestors of Native Americans split off from those of east Asians, they moved north. Somewhere in Siberia, they met another group of people coming east from western Eurasia. The two groups mingled, and their descendants eventually traveled east into North America. (Young)
Mitochondrial DNA is passed only through the female line. Mitochondria is a living organism, a separate life form from ourselves. They are dependent on us for life; we live in a symbiotic relationship. Mitochondrial DNA can live 15 generations. 15 generations of living mitochondria live inside you. Your 15 generation grandparents' living cells are in you. A mutant mtDNA will drift to fixation in a human matriline in 15 generations.
Most British ancestors arrived as hunter-gatherers, between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago. But it is rather silly to say that, “Our ancestors were Basques, not Celts". They are not lineage groups. They are ethnic groups that developed within the last 2,000 or 3,000 years. Basque STRs (genetic markers used to identify a DNA sequence) reveal 21 founding clusters, which could only have arrived direct from the Basque country. Their descendant twigs are unique to the British Isles.
Grail houses can have different Y haplogroups (paternal) as well as different mtDNA (maternal) signatures. While the “red gene” is significant, it may or may not distinguish noble ancestors. Typical medical problems of a line will not all present in one individual.
Neanderthals also had red hair, but studies show the mutation responsible for this differs from that which causes red hair in modern humans. Genetic drift simply favored the fair skinned who could absorb more Vitamin D in less-sunny northern climes. It helps in heat retention.
Natural selection is influenced primarily by two factors: the amount of genetic variation for a trait and the strength of selection on that trait. There is a genetic coupling of correlated traits.
Selection acting on one trait can cause expression in any correlated trait. Over longer periods natural selection structure will be determined by some combination of mutation, genetic drift, and migration. There can be substantial variation, with causes as ephemeral as famine and cosmic rays. The resulting traits are described as the "G-matrix".
We shouldn't underestimate the potential role of drift in explaining divergence among populations. Genetic studies show, inbreeding appears to generate more divergence in the details of the genetic architecture and distribution of changes.
Research shows that inbreeding changes the shape of the genetic covariance matrix. Such inbreeding is one of the primary characteristics of ancient lines, some of which historically included brother-sister marriage for conserving sovereignty, wealth and social control in the same families.
Mutation and genetic drift are known to change the amount of genetic variation for a trait. For example, genetics has demonstrated that all light-eyed people descend from a single individual with a specific mutation. Any given line can be quite different.
Divine Pride
Discovering old royal lines, many leap to royal ego trips, declaring themselves princes of their imaginal realms, seeking spurious titles. Other fancy themselves channels of ancient ancestors such as Mary Magdalene or even Jesus. While such identifications have always been popular, again based on emotional appeal and lack of critical thinking, they may be no more than 'misguided inner authority'.
The unconscious psyche can produce great wisdom; it can also churn out endless rubbish or Trickster distortions. Ego inflation is an over-expansion of the personality through identification with an archetype or, in pathological cases, with a historical or religious figure, which exceeds individual limitations.
Furthermore, no credible experts in DNA have come forward with idiosyncratic ideas that support the inflated memes about genes that paper many sites, which wallow in their own infallibility and self-assurance. Epigenetics has shown that the environment exerts a life-altering patterning effect on us as much or more than genetics. You get the genealogy you deserve.
Mystification abounds among those who don't know the basics of genetics or genealogy, and are persuaded by oft-repeated tales told with great enthusiasm and gravity, as if that makes them more reliable. The main virtue of such allegations is that they are unprovable one way or the other, making them ideal material for psychological projection, usually resulting in either inflation or paranoia about so-called 'elitists', or other such buzzwords for scapegoated groups.
At about 360 years, or just short of 15 generations an individual living today would carry only three thousands of 1% (00.003052%) of the DNA of an ancestor who was “pure” anything 15 generations ago. So even if one ancestor was indeed Mediterranean 15 generations ago, unless they continuously intermarried within a pure Mediterranean population, the amount would drop by 50% with each generation to the miniscule amount that would be found in today’s current generation. With today’s technology, this is simply untraceable in autosomal DNA. (Miller, Ancestral Memories)
Direct Ancestors
Life and consciousness are the ultimate emergent phenomena, but we still don't know their real origin, which remains veiled in Mystery. We are Cosmic psychophysical beings with a core reaching down into the microcosm of quantum dynamics and the still center of Zero-Point.
In the split second moment of conception, the two streams of genetic information from your parents, handed on from generation to generation over literally hundreds of millennia, combined in one single cell embodying your unique potential. It ensured that you became an unequaled living record of the lives and ways of your ancestors.
All of your ancient ancestors had one thing in common -- they were survivors who overcame daunting obstacles and hardships in their natural world. Your DNA is a legacy passed down to you from thousands of generations of fittest individuals. You have the best of their collective genes, all meticulously spelled out within the DNA of your genome. Within historical times, you have ancestors from whom you have no DNA.
Based on genome sequences, science now accepts the mixed heritage theory that modern humans interbred with other now-extinct species, including Neanderthal, Denisovian, and an unknown Asian species, possibly Homo heidelbergensis . It appears 30-50,000 years ago there were many hominid species, but only anatomically modern humans prevailed. But the relic biology of other hominids remains part of our genome. (Nature)
Your individual DNA fingerprint depends on how the chromosomes line up at conception. Some traits from both parents’ potentials will be there, while others get excluded. So, some siblings can be redheads, others not; some can have family medical problems, others not, some may be Rh neg., others not. Extensive historical knowledge of cultural practices and human migratory patterns helps us piece each story together. We may find things we never imagined and find no evidence for traits known within our lineage.
In genealogy the term "direct line" refers to a relationship of one person to another in a direct line. A direct-line ancestor is someone from whom you descend in a direct line, parent to child, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. Direct-line research refers to genealogy research focused on one's direct-line ancestors. Blood relations refer to the underground stream, the Red River of Memories that flows within us. The Blood is real and it's fresh; it flows in your veins.
By contrast, collateral line is a term used to describe family relationships not in the direct line of descent such as siblings, spouses and children of siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Researching direct-line ancestry is a common focus of genealogists and family history researchers. Proving a direct line of descent is generally required for membership in heritage societies. A mere seven generations back we have over 200 people in just our immediate, or father-mother, grandfather-grandmother line.
We are not just talking about the way you look, but about your ancestral memories, the complete set of instincts and response patterns that were responsible for the survival of those two genetic streams in the first place. The instincts and response patterns that you were actually born with are what Jung called the Collective Unconscious. Genealogy functions as a therapeutic portal, much like dreams or symptoms allow us to enter the imaginal dimension.
Epigenetics is the heritable changes in gene activity which are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence, rooted in our ancestors' experience.. Genes are expressed or silenced.
Genealogy is about Identity. It is an Art, a quest for the truth within. Harvesting the fruits of the Tree of Life mobilizes the soul for creative self-expression, self-discovery and self-healing. Much benefit and fulfillment comes simply by remembering, writing, tape-recording, sharing, painting, enacting or otherwise birthing them into the physical world.
Genealogy takes tremendous effort, like the Great Work. It affects the psyche with both historical and imaginal, known and unknown elements. It has its own magic, alchemy, and synchronicities. Some attempt to garner social status through their genealogies when other avenues elude them. Some in search of their identity wind up finding the Shadow.
Genealogy is about Identity. Some people who come to this practice use it to build a persona that becomes their main way of connecting in the world, an excessive commitment to a rather false image. Jung identified the persona as a social mask or psychological armor. Recovery, the aim of individuation, "is not only achieved by work on the inside figures but also, as conditio sine qua non, by a readaptation in outer life," according to Jung. We live in the present moment.
Genetics demonstrates that traits are not inherited preferentially from the ancestral matrix. While you may have a demonstrable royal line you inherit far more genetics from commoners who did not have their lines recorded. While it is true that the Y-haplotype is passed directly from father to son, generation after generation, we all also inherit the even more persistent mitochondrial DNA from our maternal ancestors, up to 400 generations, or so.
With mtDNA the surname changes each generation. Every once in a while a mutation -- a random, natural (and usually harmless) change -- occurs in the sequence of our mitochondrial DNA. Think of it as a spelling mistake. After one of these mutations occurs in a particular woman, she then passes it on to her daughters, and her daughters' daughters, and so on. Mothers also pass on their mitochondrial DNA to their sons, but the sons in turn do not pass it on. Geneticists use these markers from people all over the world to construct one giant mitochondrial family tree.
But even siblings may or may not inherit the slightest bit of any given ancestor or line. Thus, there is no single haplotype for the royal lines, nor any single identifying gene of that inheritance. Those with a royal genealogy may not have single "royal" gene in their genome, making any claims of extraordinary inheritance moot.
Your individual DNA fingerprint depends on how the chromosomes line up at conception. Some traits from both parents’ potentials will be there, while others get excluded. So, some siblings can be redheads, others not; some can have family medical problems, others not, some may be Rh neg., others not.
No one knows where the Rh-negative originates. Rhesus negative blood simply means that the blood doesn't have any Rhesus antigens on the surface of the red blood cells. Absence of a protein does not have to originate from anywhere.
The simplest explanation is that Rh-negative blood is a mutation on the first chromosome which rendered individuals incapable of producing functional Rhesus proteins. There are so few people with Rh-negative blood because it is a recessive trait. 5% of global population is currently Rh-Negative. But, they are 15% of the UK and USA. The Basque region is 50%. They descend from Paleolithic inhabitants of Western Europe prior to the arrival of farmers between 9,000 and 6,000 years ago.
Conceivably, only one sibling in a dozen might be Rh negative, descended from Rh positive parents. Even siblings get varied genetic packages and may not have genes from all the ethnicities or ancestors of their genealogical lines. There are different ethnic signatures. Some siblings might carry the signature of Native American ancestors; others not.
For example the Rh- blood type is a recessive gene, which may or may not express in a family. It could be ten or more generations since anyone has had Rh- blood in his family. But the RhD- version of the RhD gene is still there. To express both parents must carry the recessive gene.
Two parents who have O positive blood could easily have a child who is O negative. In fact, most children who are O negative have parents who are positive. Some or perhaps none of a couple's children may inherit the trait. So siblings can be mixed Rh- with other blood types that are dominant. It all depends on the selection of evolutionary forces and the gene-expression of epigenetics. Some people believe that O Negative blood is "pure" or "alien". Neither of these notions are true.
There’s a simple way of describing our genetic relatedness. Not only do all people have the same set of genes, but all groups of people also share the major variants of those genes. Geneticists have never found a genetic marker that is of one type in all the members of one large group and of a different type in all the members of another large group. That’s why ethnically targeted biological weapons would never work. Every group overlaps genetically with every other. We have cultural differences masquerading as race problems. (The Atlantic)
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/the-genetic-archaeology-of-race/2180/
There is no singular gene, mutation, allele, STR or SNP that tells the whole story. "single nucleotide polymorphisms" (SNPs, snips) make up about 90 percent of all genetic variation in the human genome. There are clusters of mutations that show deep relationship patterns of regional origin in some individuals. There is no DNA report that is 100% conclusive. They use the statistical mathematics of the educated guess.
Statistical and sampling flaws can lead to misinterpretations, based on too small of samplings and comparison studies. So, our own conclusions about our own DNA tests are, in part, interpretations of an interpretation. We can only draw inferences about the past based on the patterns observed in human DNA. And this is what keeps our quest alive.
Curated Lines
Most Europeans are descended largely from populations of farmers who started migrating out of the Middle East 9,000 years ago. As the sons and daughters of farming families left their parents’ farms and moved into new territory, they interbred with the existing hunter-gatherer populations, which produced gradients of genetic change radiating from the Middle East.
Only in mountainous areas unattractive to farmers—the Pyrenees homelands of the Basques, for example—were the genes of the indigenous peoples comparatively intact. Other historical events influenced the European gene pool. For example, a genetic trail leads from the area north of the Black and Caspian Seas into the rest of Europe. This trail links to the spread of the descendants of nomadic warriors and herders who first domesticated the horse, about 4,000 B.C.
Genetic genealogy is the application of genetics to traditional genealogy. Genetic genealogy involves the use of genealogical DNA testing to determine the level of genetic relationship between individuals and archaic tribes. It provides evidence of ancient tribes and migrations, but none about the actual people in genealogical lines, much less their names or history.
Furthermore, both are highly subject to interpretation of the results. It is a truism that genealogy without proofs is relatively useless, and even those lines accepted as "best practice" in genealogy have gaps and presumptions that ultimately lead back to mythical progenitors. Any viable genealogy must be curated with citations and evidence at every stage to have reliable validity.
Once you have located what is known as a gateway ancestor, one who links your family to a known noble ancestry, the door opens upon a world of recorded and published pedigrees that can lead back to royalty.
For countless Americans, whether they know it or not, and countless others of European ancestry, these gateways provide a tangible personal link to the highly inbred medieval world, in the form of descents from medieval kings, queens, popes, crusaders, troubadours, heroes, villains, and saints. Sooner or later, a gateway is likely to turn up in any sufficiently "bushy" New England family tree.
The relative importance of a gateway ancestor, for research purposes, depends on (1) the amount of new and traceable ancestry a gateway brings into the target population, and (2) the number of descendants that gateway has, which insures a large interest base. Based on these two factors, early immigrants with traceable royal ancestry are the most talked about gateways, but not really out of any class-oriented prejudice. Among early immigrants from Europe to the Americas, individuals with noble connections are likely to be traceable to a vastly larger number of ancestors, and thus sustain more interest and offer more connections as ‘gateways’.
Only 86 to 600 gateway ancestors may sound like a small target to shoot for. But remember, your chances are mathematically better than you think. By going back to 1650 or so, you are exploring 12 generations (12 x 30 years per generation = 360 years). Barring intermarriage of cousins, there would be 4096 (2 to the 12th power) ancestors in your 12th generation, and there were only a few thousand Western people on the eastern shores of America in 1650. So the chances that one of yours is a gateway ancestor are pretty good.
Next, you should review the line from your gateway ancestor up to Charlemagne. Most of these ascents go through the English or French kings, such as Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Do the Math & Get Over It
Most Americans with sizable New England Yankee, mid-Atlantic Quaker, or Southern "planter" ancestry are descended from medieval royals -- kings of England, Scotland, and France especially. Following those lines back into the mists of pre-history we find direct links to all so-called racial divisions. Most of our ancestors will remain "invisible". This is the main reason people emphasize ancestral nobles.
The ancient royal lines include Asian Siberians and Han Chinese dynasties, sub-Saharan African, and Muslim lines among the direct ancestors. Some will have Turkish, Persian, and Indian lines. Ultimately, this means 'race' is an illusion, other than the human race. The math backs this up, indicating we are all related within perhaps 40 generations.
Once you have located what is known as a "gateway ancestor", one who links your family to a known noble ancestry, the door opens to a world of recorded and published pedigrees that can lead back to royalty. A “Gateway Ancestor” is your immigrant ancestor who has legitimate or illegitimate royal descent. He or she, then, is your American “gateway” to royalty. "Gateway Ancestors" are colonists or immigrants who came to America that are descended of royal blood.
So you find you come from royalty -- get over it. The Pyramid Theory, a doubling of ancestors each generation back, claims you have 2048 ancestors by the 12th generation in your past, and possibly 60,000 direct ancestors going back to the Crusades. By Generation #40, you have more than one trillion ancestors!
We are at the end of a long and winding genetic journey that continues after and through us. We are probably all connected by the 25th gr-grandparents, if you do the math. There is a great possibility that we are descendants (or are related) from almost everyone alive some seven hundred years ago. With our parents' generation as Nº 1, the number of persons is 33,554,432.
That number is the theoretical result of (x2) progression, since many of those ancestors are the same persons. The genealogical evidence shows that many of the families intermarried for generations, producing a rich genealogical heritage. By the 12th generation you have possibly 60,000 direct ancestors going back to the Crusades.
Yet, somehow a determined gen can survive intact through all those descendants and become a particle of memory that will give you a dejá vu once in a while. Ancestral memories may not be of actual events - it is not to be confused with the idea of past life or reincarnation - but of reactive response patterns and emotional states brought about by environment. The past has gone and the future has yet to come. All you ever have is the present.
Mixed Blood
Eleventh cousins share on average 60-parts-per-billion of DNA, or about 180bp (although with wide variation due to the spotty nature of meiotic recombination: in fact, 99.5% of 11th cousins will share no stretches of DNA through recent descent at all, while the remaining 0.5% will typically share tens of thousands of bases). Given that the average person harbours about 10 recessive diseases, this gives about a 1 in 1.6 million chance of offspring developing a royal disease due to a piece of DNA shared between them.
In fact, eleventh cousins is a pretty low degree of relatedness, by the standard of these things. A study of inbreeding in European populations found that couples from the UK are, on average, as genetically related as 6th cousins (the study looked at inbreeding in Scots, and in children of one Orkadian and one non-Orkadian). 6th cousins share about 0.006% of their DNA, and thus have about a 0.06% chance of developing a genetic disease via a common ancestor. http://www.genomesunzipped.org/2011/04/inbreeding-genetic-disease-and-the-royal-wedding.php
So how do we relate to those we perceive as kin? In the struggle between society and family, the exponential mathematics of kinship ordinarily works to the advantage of society. Anthropologist Nancy Thornhill who contends that the prohibitions against incestuous marriages in most societies are not public-health measures aimed at reducing birth defects but the society's way of fighting back against extended families.
Successful coalitions and charlatans also pose as "kin". Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker warns misperceived kinship makes people vulnerable to manipulation and cultish mind control:
When it comes to individual people, then, kinship is in the mind of the beholder. That creates
an opening through which manipulators can flood people's kinship sense with cues that mimic the signals of biological relatedness. This kind of mind control is a strong temptation to anyone who wants to foster cohesion among people who are not closely related. Contrary to a shibboleth of the American right, family values do not uphold religion and country;
they subvert them. An extended family is a rival coalition to any other group, held together not by an ideology or social contract or common purpose but by brute genetic relatedness. And it is a coalition with an unfair advantage: relatives care for one another more than comrades do. Religions and political movements thus have to undermine family loyalties. Marxist collectivization and Moonie programming are obvious recent examples, but millennia before them Jesus momentously declared, "A man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." (Pinker)
It isn't merely our noble genealogy that makes us who we are. After all, we share most of it with millions of people. What is unique is our personal reaction to such knowledge and how our relationship with it evolves as we assimilate and integrate that expanded awareness -- the Mystery of the whole matter.
We need To Know genealogy much like we need to know physics and psychology to comprehend what matter is, as well as what makes us matter. We have thousands of ancestors whose lines are not preserved, making the small slice of royal descent largely archetypal as well as material. The part stands for the Whole - the cosmic process of Big History.
http://www.thecontroversialfiles.net/2013/07/hitler-and-new-age-new-world-order.html
REFERENCES
Anon, Evidence for a rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field 41,000 years ago October 29, 2013, http://www.iflscience.com/environment/evidence-rapid-reversal-geomagnetic-field-41000-years-ago#sthash.c3y8TkfN.dpuf
Banyan, Will, Paranoia Magazine, http://www.paranoiamagazine.com/2013/01/the-tangled-web-icke-weaves-who-is-behind-david-ickes-freedom-foundation/
Barras, Colin, The father of all men is 340,000 years old , March 2013, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23240-the-father-of-all-men-is-340000-years-old.html?cmpid=RSS|NSNS|2012-GLOBAL|online-news
Bryner, Jeanna, One Common Ancestor Behind Blue Eyes, January 31, 2008,
http://www.livescience.com/9578-common-ancestor-blue-eyes.html
D'Adamo, Peter, lood groups and the history of peoples - Excerpted from the Complete Blood Type Encyclopedia, Penguin Putnam Inc, 2002, http://www.dadamo.com/science_anthro.htm
Miller, Iona, 2013, Jungian Genealogy, http://jungiangenealogy.weebly.com/
Miller, Iona, 2013, Sangreality Now, http://sangreality.weebly.com/index.html
News Staff, Disaster Trifecta 40,000 Years Ago: Climate Shifts, Geomagnetic Field Reversal And A Super Volcano, October 18th 2012, http://www.science20.com/profile/news_staff
Dr. Norbert Nowaczyk and Prof. Helge Arz, Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Oppenheimer, Stephen, “Myths of British ancestry”, October 2006 issue of Prospect, https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/mythsofbritishancestryrevisited/#.Uo1R5HcvY_M
Pinker, Steven, 2007, :Strangled by Roots",
http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2007.06.08_thenewrepublic.pdf
The Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/the-genetic-archaeology-of-race/2180/
Stolte, Daniel, "Human Y chromosome much older than previously thought", American Journal of Human Genetics, March 4, 2013 http://phys.org/news/2013-03-human-chromosome-older-previously-thought.html#jCp
Cosmic rays reveal event in Earth's magnetic field history, Nov 29, 2012 Journal of Geophysical Research
Yong, Ed, Americas’ natives have European roots The oldest known genome of a modern human solves long-standing puzzles about the New World's genetic heritage, Nature, 20 November 2013 http://www.nature.com/news/americas-natives-have-european-roots-1.14213
Why Rh Negative is not Blood of Gods or of Alien Origin? http://www.hitxp.com/articles/science-technology/rh-negative-blood-group-alien-origin/
http://lawpunditblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/environment-and-laws-of-genetics-rh.htm
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/25/mapping-redheads-which-country-has-the-most
My deadly genetic disease was just a bug
bad diagnosis/bad genetics: http://io9.com/this-is-an-area-of-science.../@AnnaleeNewitz
Callaway, Ewan, Mystery humans spiced up ancients’ sex lives Genome analysis suggests there was interbreeding between modern humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans and an unknown archaic population, [maybe Homo Naledi] Nature magazine, 19 November 2013
http://www.nature.com/news/mystery-humans-spiced-up-ancients-sex-lives-1.14196
Updated genome sequences from two extinct relatives of modern humans suggest that these ‘archaic’ groups bred with humans and with each other more extensively than was previously known. The ancient genomes, one from a Neanderthal and one from a member of an archaic human group called the Denisovans, were presented on 18 November at a meeting on ancient DNA at the Royal Society in London. The results suggest that interbreeding went on between the members of several ancient human-like groups in Europe and Asia more than 30,000 years ago, including an as-yet-unknown human ancestor from Asia. “What it begins to suggest is that we’re looking at a Lord of the Rings-type world — that there were many hominid populations,” says Mark Thomas, an evolutionary geneticist at University College London who was at the meeting but was not involved in the work. The first published Neanderthal1 and Denisovan2 genome sequences revolutionized the study of ancient human history, not least because they showed that these groups bred with anatomically modern humans, contributing to the genetic diversity of many people alive today.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/11/homo-naledi-humans-not-alone-evolution?CMP=fb_gu
Anon, Evidence for a rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field 41,000 years ago October 29, 2013, http://www.iflscience.com/environment/evidence-rapid-reversal-geomagnetic-field-41000-years-ago#sthash.c3y8TkfN.dpuf
Banyan, Will, Paranoia Magazine, http://www.paranoiamagazine.com/2013/01/the-tangled-web-icke-weaves-who-is-behind-david-ickes-freedom-foundation/
Barras, Colin, The father of all men is 340,000 years old , March 2013, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23240-the-father-of-all-men-is-340000-years-old.html?cmpid=RSS|NSNS|2012-GLOBAL|online-news
Bryner, Jeanna, One Common Ancestor Behind Blue Eyes, January 31, 2008,
http://www.livescience.com/9578-common-ancestor-blue-eyes.html
D'Adamo, Peter, lood groups and the history of peoples - Excerpted from the Complete Blood Type Encyclopedia, Penguin Putnam Inc, 2002, http://www.dadamo.com/science_anthro.htm
Miller, Iona, 2013, Jungian Genealogy, http://jungiangenealogy.weebly.com/
Miller, Iona, 2013, Sangreality Now, http://sangreality.weebly.com/index.html
News Staff, Disaster Trifecta 40,000 Years Ago: Climate Shifts, Geomagnetic Field Reversal And A Super Volcano, October 18th 2012, http://www.science20.com/profile/news_staff
Dr. Norbert Nowaczyk and Prof. Helge Arz, Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Oppenheimer, Stephen, “Myths of British ancestry”, October 2006 issue of Prospect, https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/mythsofbritishancestryrevisited/#.Uo1R5HcvY_M
Pinker, Steven, 2007, :Strangled by Roots",
http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2007.06.08_thenewrepublic.pdf
The Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/the-genetic-archaeology-of-race/2180/
Stolte, Daniel, "Human Y chromosome much older than previously thought", American Journal of Human Genetics, March 4, 2013 http://phys.org/news/2013-03-human-chromosome-older-previously-thought.html#jCp
Cosmic rays reveal event in Earth's magnetic field history, Nov 29, 2012 Journal of Geophysical Research
Yong, Ed, Americas’ natives have European roots The oldest known genome of a modern human solves long-standing puzzles about the New World's genetic heritage, Nature, 20 November 2013 http://www.nature.com/news/americas-natives-have-european-roots-1.14213
Why Rh Negative is not Blood of Gods or of Alien Origin? http://www.hitxp.com/articles/science-technology/rh-negative-blood-group-alien-origin/
http://lawpunditblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/environment-and-laws-of-genetics-rh.htm
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/25/mapping-redheads-which-country-has-the-most
My deadly genetic disease was just a bug
bad diagnosis/bad genetics: http://io9.com/this-is-an-area-of-science.../@AnnaleeNewitz
Callaway, Ewan, Mystery humans spiced up ancients’ sex lives Genome analysis suggests there was interbreeding between modern humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans and an unknown archaic population, [maybe Homo Naledi] Nature magazine, 19 November 2013
http://www.nature.com/news/mystery-humans-spiced-up-ancients-sex-lives-1.14196
Updated genome sequences from two extinct relatives of modern humans suggest that these ‘archaic’ groups bred with humans and with each other more extensively than was previously known. The ancient genomes, one from a Neanderthal and one from a member of an archaic human group called the Denisovans, were presented on 18 November at a meeting on ancient DNA at the Royal Society in London. The results suggest that interbreeding went on between the members of several ancient human-like groups in Europe and Asia more than 30,000 years ago, including an as-yet-unknown human ancestor from Asia. “What it begins to suggest is that we’re looking at a Lord of the Rings-type world — that there were many hominid populations,” says Mark Thomas, an evolutionary geneticist at University College London who was at the meeting but was not involved in the work. The first published Neanderthal1 and Denisovan2 genome sequences revolutionized the study of ancient human history, not least because they showed that these groups bred with anatomically modern humans, contributing to the genetic diversity of many people alive today.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/11/homo-naledi-humans-not-alone-evolution?CMP=fb_gu
Descents from Antiquity
Internet genealogies suffer a well-known defect -- many of them accept as true many lines that are known by scholars to be false. Geni is no exception. In Geni’s early days, many users uploaded GEDCOM files with sleo purious and fantastic genealogies. As users we’ve done a lot of cleanup, merging duplicates and cutting bad connections, but there is a lot of work still to do.
Usually, the term “Descents from Antiquity” refers to modern efforts to find plausible lines of descent. However, it can also include traditional descents that have varying degrees of reliability.
This project is designed to help clean up the many fictitious genealogies and to focus attention on legitimate debate about extending our shared genealogy. You can help us by identifying questionable lines. It is generally unhelpful to simply say something like, “No one can prove a descent from Julius Caesar.” What is most helpful is to identify the specific generations where the evidence fails, search for reliable sources, then start a discussion.
Because Geni is a collaborative environment, you should be cautious about cutting any connections mentioned here without starting a discussion and giving other users ample opportunity to weigh in.
Medieval forgeries A common belief in antiquity and in the middle ages was that tribes took their name from a common ancestor. For example, the Historia Brittonum (Nennius, 9th century) names Alanus as the first man to live in Europe. He had a son Hiscion, and Hiscion’s four sons Francus, Romanus, Alamanus, and Brutus were the ancestors respectively of the French, Romans, Germans, and British. The name of this Alanus was probably a corrupted form of Mannus, the Old Germanic god who was the ancestor of mankind. Some scholars believe that Mannus was another name for Bor, the father of the god Odin in Norse tradition. In English, German and the Scandinavian languages we get our word man from Mannus.
When the Europeans converted to Christianity, they had a problem. Their royal families were only a few generations removed from the old gods. And, worse. Exposed to Roman arts and sciences, they discovered the idea of “historical time”. The world was older than they had ever thought about. Their royal pedigrees weren’t long enough to go back to the creation of the world.
From the Romans they learned that modern science had proved that everyone on earth was descended from Adam and Eve. (It said so in the Christian scriptures, which were absolutely true -- according the scholars.)
The answer was simple and obvious. The old gods had to have been humans, famous men and great warriors who came to worshipped as gods. And, if they were human, they must have been descended from Adam and Eve like everyone else. The trick was to figure out how.
One of the earliest surviving attempts to create this kind of genealogy is the Historia Brittonum by the Welsh monk Nennius (9th century), who recorded the following genealogy:
(1) Noah, his son (2) Japheth, his son (3) Joham, his son (4) Jobath, his son (5) Bath, his son (6) Hisrau, his son (7) Esraa, his son (8) Ra, his son (9) Aber, his son (10) Ooth, his son (11) Ethec, his son (12) Aurthack, his son (13) Ecthactur, his son (14) Ecthactur, his son (15) Mair, his son (16) Semion, his son (17) Boibus, his son (18) Thoi, his son (19) Ogomuin, his son (20) Fethuir, and his son (21) Alanus.
Nennius also tied Alanus to Rome by making him a husband of Rhea Silvia, whose twin sons Romulus and Remus are said to have founded Rome in 753 BCE. The connection is scarcely credible historically, but served neatly to graft the eponymous ancestors of the northern Europeans onto classical tradition by making them brothers of Romulus, the eponymous ancestor of the Romans.
These medieval genealogies connecting ancient kings to Adam are pure invention. They are interesting now because they show the history of history.
England The Anglo-Saxons, forerunners of the modern English, were ruled by kings who claimed to be descended from the god Woden (Odin in the Norse versions). In later Scandinavian versions, Woden was the son of Bor, son of Búri. Some scholars believe that in the Germanic version, which included the Anglo-Saxons, Woden was the son of Mannus, the ancestor of mankind, who was son of Tuisto.
English monks kept Woden, but dumped Bor and Búri. They “discovered” that Woden was descended from Noah, but the process took several tries.
In one place, the 9th century Anglo-Saxon chronicle gives the following line. There are too few generations here, but this fragment might preserve the earliest non-divine version of Woden’s ancestry.
(1) Noah, his son (2) ---, his son (3) Finn, who was born in the ark, his son (4) Freothelaf, his son (5) Frithuwald, his son (6) Woden.
About the same time, Nennius in his Historia Brittonum gives a slightly different version. Here we get two more generations beyond Finn, which might also represent an authentic tradition.
(1) Geat, “who, as they say, was the son of a god”, his son (2) Godwulf, his son (3) Finn, his son (4) Frithuwulf, his son (5) Frithowald, and his son (6) Woden.
Nennius gives us more theology than genealogy. He says that Geat “as they say, was the son of a god, not of the omnipotent God and our Lord Jesus Christ (who before the beginning of the world, was with the Father and the Holy Spirit, co-eternal and of the same substance, and who, in compassion to human nature, disdained not to assume the form of a servant), but the offspring of one of their idols, and whom, blinded by some demon, they worshipped according to the custom of the heathen.”
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of documents rather than a single document. In another place (855), it gives a fuller line.
(1) Noe [Noah], his son (2) Sceaf, his son (3) Bedwig Sceafing, his son (4) Hwala Bedwiging, his son (5) Haþra Hwalaing, his son (6) Itermon Haðraing, his son (7) Heremod Itermoning, his son (8) Sceldwea Heremoding, his son (9) Beaw Sceldwaing, his son (10) Taetwa Beawing, his son (11) Geat Taetwaing, his son (12) God wulf Geating, his son (13) Fin Godwulfing, his son (14) Frealaf Finning, and his son (15) Woden Frealafing. (Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, Plummer and Earle (eds.), 66, 67 and note 6).
A note says, “id est filius Noe se waes geboren on þaere earce Noes.” That is, “he [Sceaf] is the son of Noah, he was born in Noah’s ark.” This detail ties the old pagan tradition to the new Christian tradition. Sceaf was a Norse god who arrived by boat as a baby to rule the Danes. Now, he is neatly made the son of the Christian ark builder.
Later monks, perhaps competing for prestige with the Franks, decided to dump Noah and take Woden’s ancestry back to Troy, then connect the Trojans to the Jewish scriptures. This version runs as follows. Note that the names of the new generations, between (10) and (16) have been drawn chiefly from nicknames of the old god Thor. Some of the other names might have been invented in a similar way.
(1) Judah, ancestor of the tribe of Judah, his son (2) Zara, his son (3) Darda, his son (4) Erichthonious, his son (5) Tros, his son (6) Ilus, his son (7) Laomedon, his son (8) Tithonius, his son (9) Memnon, his son (10) Thor, his son (11) Einridi, his son (12) Vingethor, his son (13) Vingener, his son (14) Móda, his son (15) Magi [Noe], his son (16) Sceaf [Seskef], his son (17) Bedwig [Bedvig], his son (18) Hwala, his son (19) Hrathra [Annarr], his son (20) Itermon [Ítermann], his son (21) Heremod [Heremód], his son (22) Heremod [Heremód], his son (23) Beaw [Bjárr], his son (24) Tætwa, his son (25) Geat [Ját], his son (26) Godwulf [Gudólfr], his son (27) Finn, his son (28) Frithuwulf, his son (29) Frealaf [Fridleifr], his son Frealaf [Fridleifr], his son (30) Freawine, his son (31) Frithuwald, and his son (32) Woden.
Attempts to reconcile these genealogies by equating the human Frithuwald with the divine Bor, and the human Frealaf with divine Búri have been problematic, because they end by giving Woden a set of mythical relatives that include the Ice Giants.
France The Franks, a confederation of Germanic tribes that formed the core of modern France, claimed descent from Francus (or Francio). According to one version of the story, Francus and his people were defeated by the Roman general Drusus in 11 BCE. Francus was killed, and they were relocated to the region between the Rhine and the Danube.
Frankish monks linked Francus to the kings of Troy. The Chronicle of Fredegar (7th century) mentions the legend. It was elaborated in the Liber historiae Francorum (probably 727). Successive generations continued adding new details.
In other words, the Franks claimed to be the distant cousins of the Romans (who claimed descent from Aeneas, another Trojan). It was a nice piece of political propaganda because it fit nicely with two things the Franks wanted to emphasize: (1) as cousins of the Romans they were equal to the Romans, and (2) as cousins and equals, they were the legitimate successors of the Roman empire.
The Grandes Chroniques de France (13th - 15th centuries), a vast compilation of historic material, refers to the Trojan origins of the French dynasty.
Johannes Trithemius' De origine gentis Francorum compendium (1514) describes the Franks as originally Trojans (called "Sicambers" or "Sicambrians") after the fall of Troy who came into Gaul after being forced out of the area around the mouth of the Danube by the Goths in 439 BCE (1:33). He also details the reigns of each of these kings—including Francus (43:76) from whom the Franks are named—and their battles with the Gauls, Goths, Saxons, etc.
(Source: Wikipedia, Francus)
Ireland John O'Hart (1824-1902), an Irish genealogist used ancient sources, such as the Lebor Gabála Érenn and the Annals of the Four Masters, to compile a genealogical history of Ireland, Irish pedigrees; or, The origin and stem of the Irish nation (1876). According to his work, the Irish kings are descended from Adam as follows:
(Source: Wikipedia, John O’Hart)
Note: We need to clarify the extent to which O’Hart’s genealogies follow ancient sources, and whether any of it was his own invention.
Ostrogoths The historian Jordanes wrote De origine actibusque Getarum ((The Origin and Deeds of the Getae/Goths, c531), commonly called the Getica. In it, he gives the history of the Goths.
Jordanes traces the Ostrogothic royal family, the Amelungs (Amali), to Hulmul, son of Gapt (Getica, 14). This Gapt is thought to be the same person as the Norse god Gaut or Geat. His son Hulmul was probably the same person as Humli, the ancestor of the Danes in Norse tradition. In a vairant version, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (13th century) says, "Of old, they say, Humli over Huns did rule, Gizur the Gauts, the Goths Angantyr, Valdar the Danes, the Romans Kjar, Alrek the Valiant the English people."
The genealogy seems to be artificial. Athalaric (?-534), king of the Ostrogoths in Jordanes time, is presented as the 17th Amal king of the Goths since Gapt, just as there had been 17 Roman kings between Aeneas and Romulus. Thus, the Amal dynasty presented itself as a second gens Iulia, ruling both Romans and Goths. In fact, the Amal dynasty is documented no earlier than Theodoric's father or grandfather, an ally of Attila the Hun. The Goths themselves are documented no earlier than 291.
The legend that Aeneas escaped the Fall of Troy (about 1200 BCE) and journeyed to Italy goes back to at least the 5th century BCE. By 400 BCE, Aeneas was being venerated in Italy as the god Iuppiter Indiges, the tribal ancestor of Latins and Etruscans.
In some Roman traditions, Iulus, the semi-divine ancestor of gens Iulia, was identical with Aeneas’ son Ascanius (Vergil). In other traditions, Iulus was the son of Aeneas by his Trojan wife, Creusa, while Ascanius was the son of Aeneas' Latin wife Lavinia, daughter of Latinus (Livy). And, in still another tradition, Iulus was son of Ascanius, and disputed the throne with Silvius after Ascanius' death (Dionysius of Halicarnasus).
When medieval monks were inventing new genealogies Aeneas was a popular figure. In the Norse saga, the Deluding of Gylfe, he is called Anea. Medieval Welsh genealogies called him Annyn Tro. In one Welsh source he is called a son of Brydain (eponymous of Britain) and a grandson of Aedd Mawr (Edward the Great) who lived about 1300 BCE. These chronologies are too confused to be credible.
Anna, kinswoman of the Virgin Mary The early Welsh royal families claimed to be relatives of the family of Jesus.
According to Harleian MS. 3958, Beli Mawr was husband to Anna (who may be a confabulation of Dôn), a "near kinswoman [consobrina] of the Virgin Mary." A medieval tradition identifies her as a sister (or daughter) of Joseph of Arimathea, but the tradition is not old enough to be authentic. There is no reason to think she was an historical figure.
Dôn seems to have been a Christianized version of the Celtic goddess Anû, the mother goddess of the Celts. In Gaul she was called Belisama. In Ireland she was Danu, the matriarch of the Túatha Dé Danann, who took their name from her. The Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh legends, calls her Dôn, sister of Mâth mab Mathonwy, King of Gwynedd.
"Chronologically speaking, if Anna married a Briton after her father arrived in this country, then we must assume that she was nearer to Jesus' age than her cousin, Mary (ie. born c. 0). Beli is recorded in the Mabinogion and Welsh Genealogies as having been the father of Caswallon (or Cassivellaunus), the leader of the Celtic tribes who repelled Cæsar's invasions of 55 & 54 bc. He could, therefore, not possibly have married Anna of Arimathea. Moreover, the local ruler whom Joseph received his land gift from, is said to have been Arfyrag (or Arviragus), Beli & Anna's supposed great great grandson." (David Nash Ford, "St. Joseph of Arimathea: Ancestor of Kings?" in Early British Kingdoms (visited Nov. 21, 2011).
King Arthur If King Arthur was a real person, as many scholars believe, then he was a war leader in 6th century Britain. Some part of his life might have been authentically recorded by English monks such as Gildas (c500-570), Bede (672/3-736), Nennius (9th century), and Geoffrey of Monmouth (c1100-c1155). However, these accounts are confused and contradictory. Arthur might have been related in some way to the Roman aristocrat Ambrosius Aurelianus, although the relationship is first recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who was writing 600 years later.
There is no doubt about Ambrosius’ existence. He was mentioned in a near contemporary document by the monk Gildas, who says he won an important battle against the invading Anglo-Saxons. Some scholars believe it is possible to sketch a brief genealogy for Ambrosius, perhaps from the Roman usurper Constantine III or from a distant cousin of the Emperor Theodosius I (or both).
In modern times there has been an explosion of genealogies drawn from Grail romances that turn fictional characters from the 11th and 12th centuries into historical people. The seminal works for these genealogies are Holy Blood, Holy Gail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln (1982) and Bloodline of the Holy Grail, by Laurence Gardner (1996). They are best characterized as “alternative history”.
Beli Mawr The early Welsh royal families claimed to be descended from Beli Mawr.
Beli Mawr was in fact a Welsh version the Celtic sun god. Among the Brythonic Celts he was Belenus (the Shining One), a fertility god who looked after sheep and cattle. In Ireland, he was Bilé, the god of death. His festival was Beltaine (Fire of Bel), held May 1st. On that day, purifying fires were lit.
According to the Mabinogion his name was Beli son of Mynogan. Wikipedia says, "However, it should be noted that in medieval Welsh tradition, Beli Mawr is often given the patronymic fab Manogan / Mynogan ("son of Manogan"). This appears to derive from a textual garbling of the name of a real historical figure, Adminius, son of Cunobelinus; after being transmitted through the Roman authors Suetonius and Orosius, this name became Bellinus filius Minocanni in the medieval Latin text from Wales, Historia Brittonum. Thus, although Beli became a separate personage in medieval pseudohistory from Cunobelinus (Welsh Cynfelyn, Shakespeare's Cymbeline), he was generally presented as a king reigning in the period immediately before the Roman invasion; his "son" Caswallawn is the historical Cassivellaunus."
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, his name was Heli, he succeeded his father Digueillus, and he reigned 40 years.
The Mabinogion names his three sons as Lludd, Casswallawn and Nynnyaw, or four sons Lludd, Casswallawn, Llevelys and Eveyd. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, he had three sons, Lud, Cassivelaunus and Nennius.
Brân the Blessed The early Welsh royal families claimed to be descended from Brân the Blessed and his father Llŷr Llediath.
Brân was legendary king of the Silures, probably originating as a Christianized form of the Celtic god Brân. He is one of the principal characters of the 1st Branch of the Mabinogion, which begins "Bran the Blessed (Bendigeidfran), the son of Llyr and Penarddun, daughter of Beli son of Mynogan, was ruler of Britain. Bran was the brother of Manawyddan and Branwen (Bronwen), and the half-brother of Nissyen and Evnissyen." He is said to have been succeeded by his uncle Caswallawn.
In Christian legend Brân is said to have been baptized in Rome in 36 CE. "Bran was said to have been taken as a captive to Rome where he joined the household of St. Paul. Returning to Britain, with SS. Aristobulus and Joseph of Arimathea some years later, he became among the first to introduce Christianity to the Island, hence his epithet of "the Blessed". This whole story is a late 17th century fabrication based on misinformation." (David Nash Ford, "Bran Fendigaid alias Bendigeitvran: Celtic God of Regeneration" in Early British Kingdoms(http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/bran.html, visited Nov. 21, 2011)
The story of Brân's conversion to Christianity is probably a confusion with the historical Cunobelin (Arfyrag's father) who was thought to have been taken captive to Rome where he became converted to Christianity. (David Nash Ford, "St. Joseph of Arimathea: Ancestor of Kings?" in Early British Kingdoms (http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/articles/josanc.html, visited Nov. 21, 2011). Brân and Cunobelin both had sons named Caradoc, and the different Caradocs became confused. There is, no doubt an added confusion of Caradocs here, as far too few generations are given.
In Arthurian romance Brân became Bron(s), the Fisher King. He is said to have married Enygeus, a sister of Joseph of Arimathea and of Anna the Prophetess (perhaps the same person as Anna, the near kinswoman of the Virgin Mary. She had 12 sons, including Alain de Borron. This story mangles the earlier version, in which Brân was a grandson of Anna, the sister (or daughter) of Joseph of Arimathea.
In the Arthurian romance 'Bonedd yr Arwyr, Brân is made both a paternal and maternal ancestor of King Arthur.
Brutus The early Welsh kings claimed descent from Brutus, the legendary 1st King of Britain, which is said to have been named for him.
Welsh genealogists called him Brwt. He is said to have founded Troia Nova ("New Troy"), which became corrupted to Trinovantum, and now is London. He is not mentioned in any classical source and is not considered to be historical.
Brutus was first mentioned in the 9th century, by Nennius, who says he was a son of Hiscion, grandson of Alanus (Mannus), and a descendant of Noah. One variant makes him a grandson or great grandson of the Trojan hero Aeneas, great grandson of the legendary Roman king Numa Pompilius, and traces his genealogy to Japheth, son of Noah. Another variant makes him the son of Silvius and grandson of Ascanius, the father of Aeneas, and traces his genealogy to Ham, son of Noah. [Historia Brittonum.]
Geoffrey of Monmouth says Brutus was son of Silvius and grandson of Ascanius. He was exiled from Italy. He went to Greece, and liberated the Trojans enslaved there. Then, he crossed to the island of Albion, which he re-named for himself, and became the first king. After his death, each of his sons received one-third of Britain, Locrinus (England), Albanactus (Scotland) and Kamber (Wales).
Many scholars believe the Hiscion son of Alanus named by Nennius as Brutus' father was identical to the Istro son of Mannus, who appears in Germanic tradition as the eponymous ancestor of the Istvaeones, one of the three divisions of Germanic proto-tribes.
Charlemagne Millions of people in the world today are descendants of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne, and they can prove it. Charlemagne’s family were upstarts, however. There are no proven links between Charlemagne and his predecessors in the Merovingian dynasty. In fact, Charlemagne has only 10 proven ancestors. Using Ahnentafel numbering, his ancestry looks like this:
Some modern scholars, working with original documents, believe they have found evidence to show that Charlemagne’s ancestry can be traced, probably, to an old Roman senatorial family. The reconstruction is plausible, because the Franks who Charlemagne ruled had conquered the old Roman province of Gaul in 486, and the Franks are known to have intermarried with the surviving Gallo-Roman aristocracy.
Using this reconstruction as a starting point, many other scholars have attempted to extend Charlemagne’s ancestry further, with varying degrees of success.
Charles Constantine Charles Constantine (c903-c962), comte de Vienne and de Bellay, was a son of Louis III the Blind (c883-928), Holy Roman Emperor. His mother was either the Burgundian princess Adelais or the Byzantine princess Anna Myakes.
The debate over Charles Constantine’s ancestry is very heated. Anna Myakes was a daughter of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI. There were negotiations to betroth her to Louis III but it isn't clear whether the marriage ever took place. If the marriage did take place, and if Charles Constantine was a son of that marriage, his ancestry would include Byzantine emperors Leo VI and Leo's father, either Basil I or Michael III.
A key part of the debate is whether Charles really had the nickname Constantine. The name was uncommon in the west, so it supports the theory, accepted by Septimani, that his mother was the Byzantine princess Anna. However, the name might refer only to his imperial ancestry. Flodoard (894-966) called him Charles Constantine, but the evidence that he used the name in his lifetime is too weak to be reliable. A diploma of his father and his own charters call him only Charles.
Érimón mac Míl Espáine According to ancient Irish sources Érimón mac Míl Espáine brought his people, the Milesians, to Ireland about 500 BCE, and conquered it from an older race, the Tuatha Dé Danann. (See the Lebor Gabála Érenn, and others.) The story might (very arguably) have some foundation, but cannot be proven or disproven. (See above, under Ireland)
Francus French monks claimed that a Trojan prince, Francus, was the eponymous ancestor of the Frankish kings. Francus is first mentioned in Nennius' Historia Brittonum (8th century) as the son of Hiscion, and eponymous ancestor of the Franks. His Trojan ancestry came later.
In the Renaissance, Francus was generally considered to be another name for the Trojan hero Astyanax (son of Hector), who was saved from the destruction of Troy.
Jean Lemaire de Belges's Illustrations de Gaule et Singularités de Troie (1510–12) has Astyanax survive the fall of Troy and arrive in Western Europe. He changes his name to Francus and becomes king of Celtic Gaul (while, at the same time, Bavo, cousin of Priam, comes to the city of Trier) and founds the dynasty leading to Pepin and Charlemagne.[9] He is said to have founded and named the city of Paris in honor of his uncle Paris.
Gilles Corrozet's La Fleur des antiquitez... de Paris (1532) describes the French king Francis I as the 64th descendant of Hector of Troy.
In Pierre de Ronsard's epic poem La Franciade (1572), the god Jupiter saves Astyanax (renamed Francus). The young hero arrives in Crete and falls in love with the princess Hyanthe with whom he is destined to found the royal dynasty of France.
(Source: Wikipedia, Francus)
Genuissa, wife of Arvirargus Venissa (Genissa, Genvissa, Genuissa) is a fictional person who serves to link the Welsh kings to ancient Rome.
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th century Historia Regum Britanniae, she was a daughter of the Roman Emperor Claudius, whom he gave in marriage to the British king Arvirargus once he had submitted to Rome.
According to Geoffrey's account she was very beautiful, and so enchanted Arvirargus that he preferred her company to anyone else's. He founded Gloucester, supposedly named after Claudius, in her honour. When Arvirargus fell out with Rome and Vespasian was sent to enforce a reconciliation, Venissa acted as mediator between them.
Venissa cannot be considered historical. She is not mentioned in authentic Roman history; her supposed husband Arvirargus is known only from a cryptic reference in Satire IV, a 2nd century satirical poem by Juvenal; and it is in any case inconceivable that a daughter, even an illegitimate daughter, of a Roman emperor could be given in marriage to a barbarian without attracting comment. Nonetheless, she and her husband, identified with the historical Caratacus, appear in many uncritical genealogies originating in the Tudor period.
(Source: Wikipedia, Venissa)
Joseph of Arimathea The Christian scriptures say that Joseph of Arimathea was an influential member of the Sanhedrin who petitioned Pontius Pilate for Jesus’ body, but give no details about his life or family. According to the Talmud, he was the younger brother of the father of the Virgin Mary. That is, he was Mary's uncle and Jesus' great-uncle.
Some modern writers venture that he might be identified with Josephus (Jewish: Yosef ben Matityahu, Roman: Titus Flavius Josephus), a Jewish historian and an apologist for the Roman empire. However, scholars dismiss the idea. Josephus was born in 37 CE, making him a generation younger than Jesus, so it would not be possible he was Jesus' great uncle.
The first mention of Joseph of Arimathea in connection with Britain is the Life of Mary Magdalene by Rabanus Maurus (766-856), Archbishop of Mainz. Jseoph first appears as the legendary Keeper of the Holy Grail in Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (early 13th century), which says he settled in Britain after the Crucifixion of Jesus, bringing the Holy Grail with him. The story spawned a rich literature on the same theme. Later tradition says he was a wealthy merchant who owned tin mines in Cornwall. Some popular fiction has him bringing Jesus with him to Britain to be trained by Druids there.
Lleuver Mawr (to be added)
Llyr Lediaith The early Welsh royal families claimed to be descended from Llŷr Llediath.and his son Brân the Blessed.
The story is not reliable. Llyr was a Celtic sea god, cognate of the Irish god Lir, but perhaps also a historical King of the Silures. As an historical figure, he is said to have been educated in Rome by Augustus Caesar. His home was at Dunraven castle, situated on a hill called Twyn Rhyvan (the Hill of Rome) in Glamorgan.
He was used by Shakespeare as a prototype for King Lear.
Makhir of Narbonne Makhir of Narbonne (8th century) was the leader of the Jewish community of Narbonne, and the ancestor of an important family there. Prof. Arthur Zuckerman suggested that he was the same person as Natronai ben Habibi, an exilarch who was deposed and exiled from Baghdad (A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France, 1972). He also suggested that Makhir was the same person as Maghario, Count of Narbonne.
Zuckerman went further. In the poem Willehalm by Wolfram von Eschenbach (c1170-c1220), the hero Guillem de Gellone is the son of Aymeri de Narbonne by his wife Alda / Aldana, daughter of Charles Martel. Guillem de Gellone's real-life counterpart was Guillaume I, comte de Toulouse, son of Theodoric, a count in Septimania. Zuckerman suggested that the poem changed the names, but memorialized actual relationships. So, Guillaume's father Theodoric must have been the same person as Aymeri. Then, Zuckerman identified Theodoric / Aymeri with Makhi / Natronai / Maghario.
Scholars have dismissed Zuckerman's methodology as flawed. Nevertheless, Guillaume de Toulouse might have been Jewish. He led the Frankish forces when they captured Barcelona in 801. The campaign was memorialized in a poem In honorem Hludovici imperatoris ("In honour of Emperor Louis") (826), by Ermoldus Nigellus. The poem uses Jewish dating and portrays Guillaume de Toulouse as an observant Jew.
Muhammad Modern genealogists have attempted to find a line of descent from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) through the rulers of Muslim Spain.
There is a possible line, through Zaida, the wife or concubine of Alfonso VI of Castile, but it is disputed.
The first problem with the line is that it comes through Ayesha, the wife of Yazîd I, the 2nd Umayyad Caliph (680-683). The Caliph’s descendants claimed that Ayesha was a daughter of Mohammad, a link that would substantially enhance their legitimacy. However, Muslim scholars say she was Muhammad's step-daughter, not his daughter. The title Sharif is accorded only to descendants of Muhammad’s daughter Fatima.
The second problem is that it is not entirely clear that Zaïda was really descended from Ayesha. Zaïda was a daughter-in-law (and probably also niece) of al-Mutamid, ruler of the taifa of Seville. He was a descendant of Ayesha, and if she was his niece, she shared that descent. Zaïda’s first husband was (her cousin?) Fath al-Ma'mum, the ruler of Córdoba and son of the Emir of Seville. He was killed in 1091 while trying to escape a seige of Córdoba. Zaïda made her way as a refugee to the court of Alfonso VI. He was already mature (age 51), married to a queen who was ill, and was lacking a male heir. Zaïda became his concubine, converted to Christianity, and took the Christian name Isabel. She bore Alfonso his only surviving son Sancho. It is not clear whether Alfonso subsequently married her. Her tombstone, erected long after her death, says, "Aqui descansa la reina Isabel, mujer del rey Alfonso, hija de Aben-Abeth, rey de Sevilla; que antes se llamaba Zayda," which translates as "here lies Queen Elizabeth, wife of King Alfonso, daughter of Aben-abeth, king of Seville; previously called Zaïda."
The third problem is that there are no known descents from Zaïda. Her only proven son Sancho died in childhood. It’s possible, however, that Zaïda might have been the same person as Alfonso’s wife Elisabeth. Elisabeth had two daughters who became the ancestors of many European royal families. Elisabeth’s burial plaque, erected long after her death, says she was a daughter of Louis [VI], but that would be chronologically impossible. She might have been a sister of Louis VI, or the plaque might be an attempt to disguise her non-Christian identity.
Pagano Ebriaci Pagano Ebriaci (?-c1091), of Pisa, ancestor of the Christian Ebriaci family, might have been a convert from Judaism, a son of Joseph of Fustat. The relationship is conjectural, and seems to have originated in the suggestion that the surname Ebriaci means "the Hebrew". Another theory is that the name Ebriaci might derive from a Latin word meaning drunk.
If Pagano Ebriaci was a son of Joseph of Fustat, then he was a grandson of Hezekiah IV, 38th Exilarch and a descendant of King David.
Pagano Ebriaci was an ancestor of Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel, through Manfredo III, marchese di Saluzzo.
Scota She is a legendary figure from whom the Scots took their name. She is said to have been the daughter of an unnamed Eyptian pharaoh. The context of her story shows that the Irish thought of her as a daughter of the pharaoh of the Exodus and a contemporary of Moses.
There are two different versions of her place in the genealogy. She was the wife either of Gaodhal Glas or of his descendant Míl Espáine.
An 11th century rescenison of the Historia Brittonum menions Scota. She also appears in the Book of Leinster, a 12th century redaction of the Lebor Gabála Érenn, where she married Geytholos (Gaodhal Glas). The earliest Scottish sources claim Geytholos was "a certain king of the countries of Greece, Neolus, or Heolaus, by name", while the Leinster redaction of the Lebor Gabála Érenn calls him a Scythian.
In variant manuscripts of the Lebor Gabála Érenn, Scota's husband was Míl Espáine.
Faced with the discrepancy, modern genealogists have created two Scotas.
There are many guesses about her father, Scota the wife of Gaodhal Glas being (perhaps) daughter of Pharaoh Cingeris, and Scota the wife of Míl Espáine being (perhaps) daughter of Pharaoh Nactabaeus. Both pharaohs are named only in medieval Irish sources, not in Egyptian sources.
Some genealogists make one or both women the daughter of whichever pharaoh they believe was the pharaoh of the Exodus.
Tamar Tephi Tamar Tephi and Teia Tephei are said to have been daughters of Zedekiah, King of Judah, but they are fictitious. Their descents from the kings of Judah is a 19th century fraud, from a misreading of old Irish sources.
According to the colorful story, Tamar Tephi and her sister Teia avoided the fate of their brothers, who were killed by the King of Babylon at Riblah. The prophet Jeremiah spirited them off to Ireland via Egypt and Spain, along with the Stone of the Covenant, which became known as Lia Fail (Stone of Destiny). (We are left wondering why Jeremiah was not equally helpful to the rest of the royal family.)
(Source: Wikipedia, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legendary_kings_of_Britain#Tea_Tephi List of legendary kings of Britain])
Resources
2. ADRALD (-976 or after). vicecomes. castrum Adraldi. 937/976. "Guillelmus…Aquitanici ducatus comes" was present in a property transaction recorded by charter dated Jul 959 subscribed by "…Adraldi vicecomiti…"[488]. "Adraldi vicecomitis" subscribed the charter dated Oct 959 by which "Ermentrudis…a seniore meo Manegaudo relicta" donated property "alodus…Sanctenou…in pago Pictavo in vicaria Lausdunensi" to the abbey of Saint-Florent near Saumur[489]. "Adraldo vicecomes, Arbertus vicecomes, Kadeloni vicecomes…" subscribed the charter dated Jan 969 under which "Wilelmus…Aquitaniensium dux et cœnobii…Hylarii abbas" donated property to "Mainardo", at the request of "patruus noster domnus Ebolus, sancte Lemovicensis sedis episcopus atque…beati Hylarii archiclavus"[490]. "Kadelo vicecomes et uxor sua Senegundis" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 963 or 964 subscribed by "…Adraldi vicecomitis…"[491]. "Segoinus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 963 or 964 subscribed by "Bosoni nepotis ipsius, Adraldi vicecomitis"[492]. "…Adraldi vicecomitis…" subscribed the charter dated Jan [965/66] under which "Ebulus…Lemovicensium sedis episcopus" donated property to Saint-Maixent[493]. "Adraldus vicecomes et uxor mea Gersindis" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Vividonense in villa…Moncels" by charter dated Jul 969[494]. m GERSENDE, daughter of --- (-after Jul 969). "Adraldus vicecomes et uxor mea Gersindis" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Vividonense in villa…Moncels" by charter dated Jul 969[495]. Adrald & his wife had three children:
a) ACFRED [II] . "…Acfredi vicecomitis…Fulconi comitis" subscribed the donation by "Aimericus et frater eius Ramnulfus clericus" of property to St Cyprien, Poitiers by charter dated [987/96][496]. "Kadelus vicecomes et ucxor mea Ærsendis" donated property "in pago Pictavo in villa…Monte Vinardo" to Nouaillé by charter dated Jan 989, witnessed by "…Aimerici vicecomitis, Æcfridi vicecomitis…"[497]. "Guilelmi comitis, Aldeberti comitis, Guidoni vicecomitis, Ecfridi vicecomitis, Geraldi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris vicecomitis…" subscribed the charter dated 20 Apr 991 under which "Guilelmus…dux Aquitaniensium" granted rights to the abbey of Nouaillé[498]. "…Hecfridi vicecomitis…" subscribed the charter dated Dec 992 under which "Willelmus Aquitanorum comes et dux et uxor mea Hemma et filius noster equivocus Willelmus" donated property to Saint-Maixent[499]. m firstly RAINGARDIS, daughter of ---. "Acfredus et uxor mea Raingaudis et infantes nostri" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 989[500]. m secondly BEATRICE, daughter of ---. "Arbaldus et uxor mea Melensensis" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Ygrandinse in villa…Magniaco" to St Cyprien by charter dated [986/99] subscribed by "Hecfridi vicecomitis, Beatricis uxoris sua, Willelmi clerici filii Arbaldi"[501]. Acfred [II] & his first wife had [---] children:
i) children . "Acfredus et uxor mea Raingaudis et infantes nostri" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 989[502].
b) BOSO [I] (-before 1012). "Achardus filius Ebboni" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [990/99] subscribed by "…Bosonis filii Adraldi vicecomitis"[503]. "Guilelmi comitis, Aldeberti comitis, Guidoni vicecomitis, Ecfridi vicecomitis, Geraldi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris vicecomitis…" subscribed the charter dated 20 Apr 991 under which "Guilelmus…dux Aquitaniensium" granted rights to the abbey of Nouaillé[504]. "Rotbertus clericus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [987/90] subscribed by "…Acfredi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris sui, Ingelelmi consanguinei sui, Die uxoris eius, Ingelelmi filii sui, Arbaldi fratris sui"[505]. m AMELIA, daughter of ---. "Boso vicecomes et uxor mea…Amelia cum infantibus nostris" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1010] subscribed by "Hecfridi filii eorum, Hugoni filii eorum…"[506]. Boson [I] & his wife had three children:
i) ACFRED (-after [1046]). "…Acfredi vicecomitis" subscribed a charter dated Aug [1024/25] under which "Adraldus" donated property to Saint-Maixent[507]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. "…Acfridi vicecomitis de castello Adralde" subscribed a charter dated 5 Dec [1031/33] under which "Willelmus Engelbertus et Willelmus filius Ansemi, nomine Lambertum, et sororem eius…Abba" donated property to Saint-Maixent[508]. "Letgardis" donated property to St Cyprien, Poitiers "pro patre suo et matre…et pro fratre suo Aimerico…et pro fratre suo Viviano…et pro nepote suo Aimerico" by charter dated [1031/46], subscribed by "Letgardi sororis Tetbaudi, Viviani fratris sui, Aimerici nepotis sui, Rorigonis, Goscelini filii sui, Hecfridi vicecomitis"[509]. "Gosfredus cognomento Nivoni" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicario Igrandinse in villa Avalliaco" to St Cyprien by charter dated [1031/46] subscribed by "Richildis uxoris eius, Gauzelini filii sui, Astucie filie sue, Abboni filii sui, Hecfridi vicecomitis, Bosonis, Adraldi fratris sui, Bosoni filii sui, Goszelini, Ingebaldi nepotis Adraldi, Gosfredi de Colle nepotis eius"[510].
ii) HUGUES [I] (-[1070] or after). "…Hecfridi vicecomitis, Hugoni fratris sui…" subscribed a charter dated 1030 or 1031 under which "Raingardis" donated property "in pago Pictavo et in vicaria Ygrandinse in villa…Targiacus" to St Cyprien[511]. "Gaulterius cognomento Burseldus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1045] subscribed by "…Hugonis vicecomitis, Acfredi vicecomitis fratris sui"[512]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. "Hugo vicecomes de Castello Airaudi…et uxor sua Girberga" renounced rights in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated to [1055], which refers to "filios enim quos habebant non permittebat Deus diu vivere" and "Bosone…eorum filio", and is signed by "…Hugo frater vicecomitis de Castello Airaudi, et Jordanis de Castello Achardi…"[513]. "Hugo vicecomes" donated property to the priory of Saint-Nicolas de Poitiers by charter dated [1060][514]. m GERBERGE, daughter of ---. "Hugo vicecomes de Castello Airaudi…et uxor sua Girberga" renounced rights in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated to [1055], which refers to "filios enim quos habebant non permittebat Deus diu vivere" and "Bosone…eorum filio"[515]. The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified. Hugues [I] & his wife had [---] children:
(a) BOSON [II] (-[1095] or after). "Hugo vicecomes de Castello Airaudi…et uxor sua Girberga" renounced rights in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated to [1055], which refers to "filios enim quos habebant non permittebat Deus diu vivere" and "Bosone…eorum filio"[516]. Vicomte de Châtellerault.
- see below.
(b) other children (-before [1055]). "Hugo vicecomes de Castello Airaudi…et uxor sua Girberga" renounced rights in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated to [1055], which refers to "filios enim quos habebant non permittebat Deus diu vivere" and "Bosone…eorum filio"[517].
iii) FOUCHER . The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified. [1070/76]. m RAINFREDE [Sufficia], daughter of PIERRE Achard "le Folâtre" & his wife ---. The primary source which confirms her parentage and marriage has not yet been identified.
c) ADRALD . The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified.
The relationship between the following two family sub-groups and the above is unknown, and is not necessarily agnatic.
1. ---.
a) INGELELM (-after [987/90]). "Rotbertus clericus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [987/90] subscribed by "…Acfredi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris sui, Ingelelmi consanguinei sui, Die uxoris eius, Ingelelmi filii sui, Arbaldi fratris sui"[518]. m DIE, daughter of ---. "Rotbertus clericus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [987/90] subscribed by "…Acfredi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris sui, Ingelelmi consanguinei sui, Die uxoris eius, Ingelelmi filii sui, Arbaldi fratris sui"[519]. Ingelelm & his wife had one child:
i) INGELELM (-after [987/90]). "Rotbertus clericus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [987/90] subscribed by "…Acfredi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris sui, Ingelelmi consanguinei sui, Die uxoris eius, Ingelelmi filii sui, Arbaldi fratris sui"[520].
b) ARBALD (-after [987/90]). "Rotbertus clericus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [987/90] subscribed by "…Acfredi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris sui, Ingelelmi consanguinei sui, Die uxoris eius, Ingelelmi filii sui, Arbaldi fratris sui"[521].
2. ACFRED (-after [975]). "Walda" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Toarcinse in villa…Monte Paludio" to St Cyprien by charter dated [975?] subscribed by "Acfredi senioris sui, Adraldi filii sui, Arberti filii sui"[522]. m WALDA, daughter of ---. "Walda" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Toarcinse in villa…Monte Paludio" to St Cyprien by charter dated [975?] subscribed by "Acfredi senioris sui, Adraldi filii sui, Arberti filii sui"[523].
a) ADRALD (-after [975]). "Walda" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Toarcinse in villa…Monte Paludio" to St Cyprien by charter dated [975?] subscribed by "Acfredi senioris sui, Adraldi filii sui, Arberti filii sui"[524].
b) ARBERT (-after [975]). "Walda" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Toarcinse in villa…Monte Paludio" to St Cyprien by charter dated [975?] subscribed by "Acfredi senioris sui, Adraldi filii sui, Arberti filii sui"[525].
BOSON [II] de Châtellerault, son of HUGUES [I] Vicomte de Châtellerault & his wife Gerberge --- (-[1095] or after). "Hugo vicecomes de Castello Airaudi…et uxor sua Girberga" renounced rights in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated to [1055], which refers to "filios enim quos habebant non permittebat Deus diu vivere" and "Bosone…eorum filio"[526]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. "Boso vicecomes de Castello Ayraudi" confirmed the renunciation of rights by "pater meus Hugo vicecomes et mater mea Erberga" in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers, by charter dated to [1076][527]. "…Boso vicecomes de Castello Ayraudi…" affirmed the actions of "Amatus [archiepiscopi Burdagelensisi Legatique apostolici]" in the charter dated [1090][528].
m ([1075] ALIENOR de Thouars, daughter of AIMERY [IV] Vicomte de Thouars & his first wife Aremgarde de Mauléon. "Bossonis vicecomitis, Aimerici filius eius, Adenordis vicecomitissæ" witnessed a charter dated [1082] under which "Erchembaldus Grenulla" donated property to Saint-Jean d'Angély[529]. The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified. "Boso vicecomes et uxor eius Adenors et filii eorum" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 1088 subscribed by "Bosonis vicecomitis et Aenoris uxoris eius et filiorum ipsorum Aimerici et Bosonis et sororis eorum Gisberge"[530]. "Willelmus Goscelinus monachus Sancti Cipriani" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1088] subscribed by "Boso vicecomes, Ainors uxor, filii ipsorum Aimericus, Boso et Petrus"[531]. "Castri Araldus vicecomes…Boso…cum uxore Adenorde et filio Aimerico" donated property "allodium…in Brigisensi pago apud villam Culturas" to the abbey of Saint-Florent near Saumur by undated charter subscribed by "filii eius minoris Bosonis"[532].
Boson [II] & his wife had five children:
1. AIMERY [I] (-Abbaye de Noyers 7 Nov before 1144, bur Abbaye de Noyers). "Bossonis vicecomitis, Aimerici filius eius, Adenordis vicecomitissæ" witnessed a charter dated [1082] under which "Erchembaldus Grenulla" donated property to Saint-Jean d'Angély[533]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. "Boso vicecomes et uxor eius Adenors et filii eorum" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 1088 subscribed by "Bosonis vicecomitis et Aenoris uxoris eius et filiorum ipsorum Aimerici et Bosonis et sororis eorum Gisberge"[534]. "Willelmus Goscelinus monachus Sancti Cipriani" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1088] subscribed by "Boso vicecomes, Ainors uxor, filii ipsorum Aimericus, Boso et Petrus"[535]. "Castri Araldus vicecomes…Boso…cum uxore Adenorde et filio Aimerico" donated property "allodium…in Brigisensi pago apud villam Culturas" to the abbey of Saint-Florent near Saumur by undated charter subscribed by "filii eius minoris Bosonis"[536]. "Aimerico vicecomes de Castro Arraudi" donated property to the abbey of Fontevraud with the consent of "Boso fratre meo" by charter dated to [1108/1115/16][537]. m AMAUBERGE [Dangerose], daughter of ---. "Aimericus Castri Araudi vicecomes" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux on the advice of "matris mee Adenoris et uxoris mee Dangerose fratrumque meorum Bosonis et Petri" by charter dated 1109[538]. She left her husband to live with Guillaume IX Duke of Aquitaine, Guillaume VII Comte de Poitou, for which he was excommunicated. Orderic Vitalis recounts that "Hildegarde Ctss de Poitou" complained to the synod of Reims, held in Oct 1119 by Pope Calixtus II, that her husband had abandoned her for "Malberge wife of the vicomte de Châtellerault"[539]. Aimery [I] & his wife had five children:
a) HUGUES [II] (-before 1176). His parentage is confirmed by the charter dated [1170/75] under which "Ugo vicecomes Castri Eiraudi" confirmed a donation to the abbey of Bécheron by "Aimericus pater meus" with the consent of "Guillelmo filio meo"[540]. Vicomte de Châtellerault.
- see below.
b) RAOUL (-[1190]). "Hugo vicecomes Castri Airaudi et Radulphus frater eius…" witnessed the charter dated 27 May 1152 under which "Alienora…ducissa Aquitanorum et Normannorum" donated property to Saint-Maixent[541]. Seigneur de Faye-le-Vineuse. m (before 1144) ELISABETH de Faye, daughter and heiress of AIMERY Sire de Faye & his wife ---. The primary source which confirms her parentage and marriage has not yet been identified. Raoul & his wife had five children:
i) RAOUL (-before 1210). The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified. Seigneur de Faye.
ii) GRECIE . The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified. "Uxoris meæ Griciæ…" consented to the donation by "Ursio dominus Fractævallensis" by charter dated to 1177[542]. "Uxor mea Gricia…" consented to the donation by "Ursio dominus Fracte Vallis" by charter dated 1186[543]. m URSO Sire de Fréteval et de Meslay, son of NIVELON [III] Sire de Fréteval & his [first/second] wife [Agatha ---/Adelais ---] (-after 1186).
iii) SIBYLLE (-10 May 1219). The Chronicon Gaufredi Vosiensis names "Sibylla filia Radulfi de Faya, qui fuit frater Guillelmi Vicecomitis de Castelleyrac" as wife of "Ebolus qui ex baptismo Archambaldus"[544]. Her marriage is dated by the 1174 charter under which "Ebolus vicecomes Ventedornensis" granted exemptions from taxes to Notre-Dame de Dalon with the consent of "vicecomitissa" (unnamed)[545]. Her name is confirmed by the Chronique de Geoffroy de Vigeois which names "Ebolo filio Eboli et Sybillæ"[546]. m ([1170/74]) EBLES [IV] "Archambaud" Vicomte de Ventadour, son of EBLES [III] Vicomte de Ventadour & his second wife Adelais de Montpellier (-1214 or after).
iv) EUSTACHE (-1184). The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified.
v) GUILLAUME . The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified. 1201/24.
c) ELEONORE (-after Mar 1130). “Willelmus…dux Aquitanorum” donated property to “ecclesiæ B. Hilarii de Cella” (La Celle, outside Poitiers) granted by “Gaufredus avus et Guillelmus pater mei” by charter dated 3 Mar 1130, subscribed by “Willielmi ducis Aquitanorum, Aenordis comitissæ, Alienordis filiæ eorum, Wilelmi Aigres filii eorum”[547]. The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified. m (before 1122) as his first wife, GUILLAUME X Duke of Aquitaine [GUILLAUME VIII Comte de Poitou], son of GUILLAUME IX Duke of Aquitaine, GUILLAUME VII Comte de Poitou & his wife Philippa [Mathilde] de Toulouse (1099-Santiago de Compostela 9 Apr 1137, bur Santiago de Compostela).
d) AMABLE . The Historia Pontificum et Comitum Engolismensis names "filia Vicecomitis Castelli-Airaudi…Amabilis" as mother of Comte Vulgrin [II]'s two sons "posterioribus natu…Fulconi et Gausfrido Martelli"[548]. 1140. m as his second wife, VULGRIN [II] Comte d'Angoulême, son of GUILLAUME V "Taillefer" Comte d'Angoulême & his wife Vitapoi de Bezaunes et de Beanuges [Albret] (-16 Sep 1140).
e) AOIS . The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified.
2. BOSON . "Castri Araldus vicecomes…Boso…cum uxore Adenorde et filio Aimerico" donated property "allodium…in Brigisensi pago apud villam Culturas" to the abbey of Saint-Florent near Saumur by undated charter subscribed by "filii eius minoris Bosonis"[549]. "Boso vicecomes et uxor eius Adenors et filii eorum" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 1088 subscribed by "Bosonis vicecomitis et Aenoris uxoris eius et filiorum ipsorum Aimerici et Bosonis et sororis eorum Gisberge"[550]. "Willelmus Goscelinus monachus Sancti Cipriani" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1088] subscribed by "Boso vicecomes, Ainors uxor, filii ipsorum Aimericus, Boso et Petrus"[551]. "Aimericus Castri Araudi vicecomes" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux on the advice of "matris mee Adenoris et uxoris mee Dangerose fratrumque meorum Bosonis et Petri" by charter dated 1109[552]. "Aimerico vicecomes de Castro Arraudi" donated property to the abbey of Fontevraud with the consent of "Boso fratre meo" by charter dated to [1108/1115/16][553]. [1140].
3. PIERRE (-after 1135). "Willelmus Goscelinus monachus Sancti Cipriani" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1088] subscribed by "Boso vicecomes, Ainors uxor, filii ipsorum Aimericus, Boso et Petrus"[554]. "Aimericus Castri Araudi vicecomes" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux on the advice of "matris mee Adenoris et uxoris mee Dangerose fratrumque meorum Bosonis et Petri" by charter dated 1109[555]. Bishop of Poitiers 1130, deposed 1135.
4. ACFRED . [1090].
5. GISBERGE . "Boso vicecomes et uxor eius Adenors et filii eorum" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 1088 subscribed by "Bosonis vicecomitis et Aenoris uxoris eius et filiorum ipsorum Aimerici et Bosonis et sororis eorum Gisberge"[556]. Nun at Fontevrault 1088.
HUGUES [II] de Châtellerault, son of AIMERY [I] Vicomte de Châtellerault & his wife Amauberge [Dangeureuse] --- (-before 1176). His parentage is confirmed by the charter dated [1170/75] under which "Ugo vicecomes Castri Eiraudi" confirmed a donation to the abbey of Bécheron by "Aimericus pater meus" with the consent of "Guillelmo filio meo"[557]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. "…Hugonis vicecomitis de Castro Ayraldi…" subscribed the charter dated [1047] under which "Guilelmus…princeps Arvernorum" donated property to the abbey of Charroux[558]. "Hugo vicecomes Castri Airaudi et Radulphus frater eius…" witnessed the charter dated 27 May 1152 under which "Alienora…ducissa Aquitanorum et Normannorum" donated property to Saint-Maixent[559].
m firstly AENOR, daughter of ---. The primary source which confirms her marriage has not yet been identified. [1140].
m secondly ALIX d'Alençon Dame de Montgommery et de Sonnois, daughter of JEAN [I] Comte d'Alençon & his wife Beatrix du Maine (-after 1220). Her parentage and marriage are confirmed by the charter dated May 1235 under which her son "Hamericus vicecomes de Castro Heraudi" confirmed privileges granted to Perseigne abbey by "Guillermi quondam comitis Pontivii et Roberti comitis Alenchonis et Sagonensis domini…avunculi nostri"[560]. The chronology of her family suggests that it is unlikely that she was born much before [1155]. The primary source which confirms her name has not yet been identified.
Hugues [II] & his first wife had two children:
1. AIMERY (-[1170]). The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified.
2. GUILLAUME (-Acre 1188). "Guillelmo filio meo" consented to the confirmation by "Ugo vicecomes Castri Eiraudi" of a donation to the abbey of Bécheron by "Aimericus pater meus" by charter dated [1170/75][561]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. m as her first husband, MARGUERITE de Mortemer, daughter of --- (-after 1190). "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron by charter dated Oct 1223 which names "fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo"[562]. Her family origin is confirmed by an enquiry into the rights of the vicomte de Châtellerault to "castro Sancti Remigii", one witness testifying that "Jocelinus de Montoere" held "Castri-Aeraudi…castrum…ratione vicecomitisse castri Aeraudi uxoris sue", and that "dominus Radulfus de Mortemer" succeeded him "pro tutela filiorum et filiarum dicti Jocelini qui erant sui nepotes" (although as shown below, it is more likely that the heirs to Châtellerault were born from Ralph´s sister´s first marriage)[563]. She married secondly (1188) Joscelin de Lezay dit de Montoiron, who succeeded as Vicomte de Châtellerault. Benedict of Peterborough names "…Jocelinus de Munmorenc, vicecomes de Castello Haraldi…" among those who died at the siege of Acre in 1190[564]. Guillaume & his wife had [six] children:
a) [GUILLAUME (-after Oct 1223). "Fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo" are named in the charter dated Oct 1223 under which "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron[565]. It is possible that the first three, unrecorded elsewhere, were uterine brothers of Aimery, sons of another marriage of his mother's, although their being named before their brother Hugues suggests that they were older than him and therefore not the sons of Joscelin de Lezay.]
b) [RENAUD (-after Oct 1223). "Fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo" are named in the charter dated Oct 1223 under which "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron[566]. It is possible that the first three, unrecorded elsewhere, were uterine brothers of Aimery, sons of another marriage of his mother's, although their being named before their brother Hugues suggests that they were older than him and therefore not the sons of Joscelin de Lezay.]
c) [GUY (-after Oct 1223). "Fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo" are named in the charter dated Oct 1223 under which "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron[567]. It is possible that the first three, unrecorded elsewhere, were uterine brothers of Aimery, sons of another marriage of his mother's, although their being named before their brother Hugues suggests that they were older than him and therefore not the sons of Joscelin de Lezay.]
d) HUGUES [III] (-after 27 Dec 1202). "Fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo" are named in the charter dated Oct 1223 under which "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron[568]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. “Hugonis domini Castri Airaudi” consented to a donation by “G[alfridus] decanus” of the church at Poitiers by charter dated to [21 Apr 1196/6 Apr 1197][569]. He was imprisoned by the English in 1202. Ralph of Coggeshall records that "…Gaufridum de Lucinan et Hugonem Brunum et Andream de Caveni et vicecomitem de Castro-Eraldi et Reimundum Tuarz et Savarium de Mauleun et Hugonem Baugii" were captured, together with "Arturum nepotem nostrum" [Arthur Duke of Brittany] after they rebelled and attempted to capture "castellum de Mirabel" where "regina Alienor avia Arturi" was living, dated to 1202[570]. King John ordered that "Vic Cast Araldi" should be sent to Normandy, dated 27 Dec 1202[571]. At an enquiry into the rights of the vicomte de Châtellerault to "castro Sancti Remigii", one witness testified that "dominus Hugo de Surgeres" held Châtellerault after the death of "vicecomes Hugo de Castro-Aeraudi" when "domino Aemerico de Castro-Aeraudi" refused to take possession[572]. m ([1200]) [as her first husband,] EUSTACHIE de Mauléon, daughter of RAOUL Sire de Mauléon & his wife Alix Chabot (-after 3 Feb 1244). A charter dated 1230 records the donation to Talmond by "Eustachia quondam vicecomitissa Castri Ayraudi", confirming the donation by "domina Aalis de Malleone mater mea" and with the consent of "domini mei S. de Malleone fratris mei"[573]. "Eustachia quondam vicecomitissa Castri Ayraudi, filia Radulfi de Maloleone bonæ memoriæ" donated property "in parrochia et in villa de Tessoele" to Absie, for the souls of "patris mei Radulfi de Maloleone, Aeliz matris meæ, Savarici fratris mei et Clemenciæ filiæ meæ", by charter dated Oct 1239[574]. "Eustachia quondam filia Radulphi domini de Maloleone et quondam vicecomitissa Castri Ayrardi" donated property to the abbey of l'Absie by charter dated Mar 1239 (maybe O.S.)[575]. King Henry III granted letters of protection to "Eustachia de Ardena, quondam soror Savarici de Malo Leone", dated 1242[576]. This document also suggests her possible second marriage to --- de Ardena (who has not otherwise been identified). Hugues [III] & his wife had one child:
i) CLEMENCE (-before 13 May 1239). “Gaufridus de Lizegnan” did homage to Louis VIII King of France for “vicecomitatu Castri Eraudi, qui provenit michi ex parte Clementie uxoris mee, filie Hugonis quondam vicecomitis Castri Eraudi” by charter dated May 1224[577]. "G de Lezigniaco dominus Volventi et Maraventi" issued a charter dated "ante Pentecosto 1239" which records a prior donation by "nobilis mulier Clemencia vicecomitissa quondam Castri Eraudi uxor nostra defuncta"[578]. "Eustachia quondam vicecomitissa Castri Ayraudi, filia Radulfi de Maloleone bonæ memoriæ" donated property "in parrochia et in villa de Tessoele" to Absie, for the souls of "patris mei Radulfi de Maloleone, Aeliz matris meæ, Savarici fratris mei et Clemenciæ filiæ meæ", by charter dated Oct 1239[579]. An enquiry into "foresta de Moleria" records that "dominum Aymericum de Castro-Airaudi" held "Castri-Airaudi vicecomitatum" for "neptis sue" who later married "domini Gaufridi de Lezigniaco" and died "sine herede"[580]. m (before May 1224) as his first wife, GEOFFROY de Lusignan Seigneur de Vouvent, son of GEOFFROY de Lusignan Seigneur de Vouvent & his first wife Eustachie Chabot Dame de Vouvent (-after 1248). Vicomte de Châtellerault 1224.
e) ELEONORE . The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified. 1184.
f) AIMERY (-after Oct 1223). "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron by charter dated Oct 1223 which names "fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo"[581].
Hugues [II] & his second wife had one child:
3. AIMERY [II] ([1170/76]-1240 or after). The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified. The chronology of his mother´s family suggests that he must have been born late in his father´s life. At an enquiry into the rights of the vicomte de Châtellerault to "castro Sancti Remigii", one witness testified that "dominus Hugo de Surgeres" held Châtellerault after the death of "vicecomes Hugo de Castro-Aeraudi" when "domino Aemerico de Castro-Aeraudi" refused to take possession[582]. An enquiry into "foresta de Moleria" records that "dominum Aymericum de Castro-Airaudi" held "Castri-Airaudi vicecomitatum" for "neptis sue" who later married "domini Gaufridi de Lezigniaco" and died "sine herede"[583]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. “Hemericus vicecomes Castri-Eraudi, Ala uxor quondam Roberti filii Ernesii, et Robertus Malet" relinquished "castrum de Esseio" in return for "terram et redditus apud Escocheium" by charter dated to [1220][584]. The family relationship between the three participants is explained in another charter dated to [1220] which records that “Hemerico vicecomiti Castri-Eraudi, Alæ uxori Roberti Ernesii et Roberto Malet, Roberti comitis Alenconii heredibus" assigned property for "castri de Esseio"[585]. "Hamericus vicecomes de Castro Heraudi" confirmed privileges granted to Perseigne abbey by "Guillermi quondam comitis Pontivii et Roberti comitis Alenchonis et Sagonensis domini…avunculi nostri" by charter dated May 1235[586]. "Haimericus vicecomes Castri Eraudi" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux by charter dated Mar 1239 which names "Haimerici avi mei"[587]. "Haymericus vicecomes Castri Eraudi" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux by charter dated 1240 which names "nobilis mulier Agatha uxor eiusdem Haymerici vicecomitis et Johannes filius eorumdem"[588]. m AGATHA, daughter of ---. "Haymericus vicecomes Castri Eraudi" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux by charter dated 1240 which names "nobilis mulier Agatha uxor eiusdem Haymerici vicecomitis et Johannes filius eorumdem"[589]. Aimery [II] & his wife had one child:
a) JEAN (-before 1290, bur Saint-André de Gouffern). "Haymericus vicecomes Castri Eraudi" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux by charter dated 1240 which names "nobilis mulier Agatha uxor eiusdem Haymerici vicecomitis et Johannes filius eorumdem"[590]. Sire de Sonnois et de Montgommery. "Johannes vicecomes de Castriheraudi et dominus Sagonensis" donated revenue from Peray to Perseigne abbey, confirming the donation made by "bone memorie Roberti quondam comitis Alentionis avunculi patris mei", by charter dated Apr 1263[591]. m MATHILDE de Dammartin, daughter of SIMON de Dammartin Comte d'Aumâle et de Ponthieu & his wife Marie de Ponthieu (before [1220]-after Jan 1257). The Chronicle of Alberic de Trois-Fontaines refers to, but does not name, the four daughters of "comes de Pontivo Symon" (in order) as the wives of "rex Castelle de Hispanie Fernandus…filius vicecomitis de Castro Araudi…filius comitis de Augo…comes de Roceio"[592]. The wording of this passage means that the husband of this Dammartin daughter was not Aimery [II] Vicomte de Châtellerault, as shown in many secondary sources, which would in any case be chronologically impossible, but his son[593]. In addition, the full passage appears to indicate that the wife of "filius vicecomitis de Castro Airaudi" was the oldest of the four daughters as she is referred to "alteram natu maiorem", even though her husband is mentioned second in the list. This would seem surprising considering that the county of Ponthieu was inherited by Jeanne, wife of Fernando III King of Castile. The charter dated Aug 1237, quoted in full in the document NORTHERN FRANCE, under which her parents name their daughter Jeanne "primogenite nostre J. …regine Yspanie et Castelle", confirms that Jeanne was indeed the oldest daughter[594]. One possible explanation of Alberic´s text is that he intended to indicate that the daughter whose husband was named second in his list was the oldest of the remaining daughters, although such a reference would seem superfluous. Interestingly, Butkens states, in his commentary relating to the Dammartin-Ponthieu family, that (1) this daughter married "le fils du Vicomte de Chastellerault" and (2) that she was the oldest daughter[595], the latter statement presumably being based on a literal interpretation of the passage in Alberic which, as explained above, is contradicted by the charter dated Aug 1237. Butkens, in the same passage, says that "le fils du Vicomte de Chastellerault…n´en eust pas de lignée" (from his wife, Simon´s daughter), although as shown below this statement is incorrect. The wife of Vicomte Jean was named Mathilde, as shown by the charter dated Jan 1256 under which "Matildis nostra uxor" confirmed a donation to the abbey of Bécheron by "Johannes vicecomes Castri Ayraudi"[596]. Mathilde was presumably named after her paternal grandmother. The charter dated 1291, under which "Jean de Harcourt chevalier et Jeanne vicomtesse de Châtellerault sa femme, fille de Jean vicomte de Châtellerault" confirmed all the donations to Saint-André-en-Gouffern made by their predecessors[597], indicates that Mathilde was the mother of Jean´s daughter Jeanne, as other donations to Saint-André-en-Gouffern which are recorded in the same source were made by the comtes de Ponthieu (ancestors of Mathilde), not by the vicomtes de Châtellerault. If it is correct that Mathilde was the second daughter of Simon de Dammartin and his wife, it is likely that she was married after her sister Jeanne, whose marriage can be dated to before Aug 1237. Jean & his wife had one child:
i) JEANNE ([1243/47]-16 May 1315). Dame de Lillebonne. Her birth date is estimated on the assumption that she was an adolescent at the time of her first marriage, but young enough to have had three children born after [1275] by her second husband. "Johanna de Castro Ayraudi relicta Gaufridi de Lesigniaco" swore homage to Saint-Maixent for certain property by charter dated 4 Mar 1275[598]. "Jean de Harcourt chevalier et Jeanne vicomtesse de Châtellerault sa femme, fille de Jean vicomte de Châtellerault" confirmed all the donations to Saint-André-en-Gouffern made by their predecessors by charter dated 1291[599]. This document also confirms that Jeanne must have been the daughter of Mathilde de Dammartin, as other donations to Saint-André-en-Gouffern which are recorded in the same source were made by the comtes de Ponthieu not by the vicomtes de Châtellerault. "Johan saignour de Harecourt et…Johanne fame doudit Johan fille et heir…debonne memoire Johan iadis vicomte de Chatel-Heraut et saignour de Soonnays" recognised the privileges of Perseigne abbey by charter dated Mar 1291[600]. m firstly (1259) GEOFFROY de Lusignan Seigneur de Jarnac et de Château-Larcher, son of HUGUES [XI] "le Brun" de Lusignan Comte de la Marche et d'Angoulême & his wife Isabelle Ctss d'Angoulême (-[Jun 1272/Mar 1274]). m secondly ([1275]) as his second wife, JEAN [II] “le Preux” Seigneur d´Harcourt, son of JEAN [I] Sire d´Harcourt & his wife Alix de Beaumont (-21 Dec 1302). Vicomte de Châtellerault by right of his wife, Maréchal de France, Amiral de France.
B. VICOMTE de CHÂTELLERAULT (MAINGOT, SEIGNEURS de SURGERES) 1. GUILLAUME Maingot (-after 1174). "…Willelmus Mangat, Theobaldus Chabot…" witnessed the marriage contract between "Johanni filio Henrici…regis Angliæ" and "Humbertus comes Mauriensis et marchio Italiæ…filia…primogenita…Aalis" dated 1173[601]. "Guillelmus Maengoti et Girbertus frater meus" granted duty exemptions to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères by charter dated 1174[602]. "Willelmus Maingot et Willelmus Maingot filius meus" donated property "in feodis Vulventi" to Absie, for the soul of "domnæ Bertæ uxoris meæ defunctæ", by charter dated 1177[603]. m [firstly] BERTHE de Rancon, daughter of GEOFFROY [III] de Rancon Sire de Taillebourg & his wife --- (-before 1177). Her marriage is confirmed by the charter dated 29 Aug 1217 under which her son "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, for the souls of "domini Willelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mæ et dominæ Bartholomeæ uxoris meæ et Hugonis de Surgeriis et Gaufridi de Surgeriis fratrum meorum"[604]. "Willelmus Maingot et Willelmus Maingot filius meus" donated property "in feodis Vulventi" to Absie, for the soul of "domnæ Bertæ uxoris meæ defunctæ", by charter dated 1177[605]. [m secondly [ORENGARDE/DOUCE], [widow of HUGUES [IX] de Lusignan], daughter of ---.] A charter dated 1168 records a donation of property to the Knights Hospitallers by "Hugo de Lusignan, Dulcia uxor et Alamanda filia eiusdem"[606]. Her second marriage is suggested by the document, dated (by Delisle) to [1209], under which "comes Augi" (Raoul de Lusignan "d´Exoudun" Comte d´Eu, see below) pledged his lands for his homage to Philippe II King of France, and that of "fratres sui comes Marchie et vicecomes Castri Eraudi"[607]. Assuming that this document is correctly dated, "vicecomes Castri Eraudi" at the time was Hugues de Surgères. A second marriage of Raoul´s mother would be the only way in which Hugues de Surgères could be correctly called "frater" of Hugues [X] de Lusignan and Raoul de Lusignan Comte d´Eu. It is also possible, assuming that the 1168 does not refer to Hugues [IX] de Lusignan, that Guillaume Maingot´s second wife was Hugues [IX]´s known wife Orengarde. If Orengarde/Douce can correctly be identified as the [second] wife of Hugues [IX], and mother of Raoul, it is likely that she was heiress of Exoudun which was transmitted to Raoul. Guillaume & his [first] wife had two children:
a) GUILLAUME Maingot (-after 1218). "Willelmus Maingot et Willelmus Maingot filius meus" donated property "in feodis Vulventi" to Absie, for the soul of "domnæ Bertæ uxoris meæ defunctæ", by charter dated 1177[608]. "Willelmus Maengoti filius Willelmi Maengoti et domine Berthe Gaufridi de Rancone filie" relinquished revenue from "molendinis de Bayo" to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères by charter dated to [1195][609]. "Hugo de Surgeriis vicecomes Castri Airaudi" confirmed the donation of rights at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent by "Willelmus Maengo dominus de Surgeriis, frater noster", in the presence of "Guaufrido de Surgeriis fratre nostro milite", by charter dated 29 Apr 1208[610]. "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, with the consent of "Willelmi Maengoti primogeniti filii mei…miles et Hugo tunc temporis valetus, filii mei", for the souls of "domini Willelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mæ et dominæ Bartholomeæ uxoris meæ et Hugonis de Surgeriis et Gaufridi de Surgeriis fratrum meorum", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[611]. "Willelmus Maingoti filius Willelmi Maingoti et domine Berte filie G. de Rancone" donated property to the Templars, with the consent of "W. filius eius", by charter dated 1217, witnessed by "domina Bartolomea uxor predicti Willelmi…"[612]. "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated wine from "magni feodo de Alnisio" to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, for the souls of "Guillelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mee et Hugonis fratris mei vicecomitis Castri Ayraudi", by charter dated 1218, witnessed by "Guillelmi filii mei primogeniti…"[613]. m BARTHOLOMEE, daughter of ---. Her marriage is confirmed by the charter dated 29 Aug 1217 under which her son "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, for the souls of "domini Willelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mæ et dominæ Bartholomeæ uxoris meæ et Hugonis de Surgeriis et Gaufridi de Surgeriis fratrum meorum"[614]. Guillaume & his wife had two children:
i) GUILLAUME Maingot (-before Nov 1239). "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, with the consent of "Willelmi Maengoti primogeniti filii mei…miles et Hugo tunc temporis valetus, filii mei", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[615]. "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated wine from "magni feodo de Alnisio" to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, for the souls of "Guillelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mee et Hugonis fratris mei vicecomitis Castri Ayraudi", by charter dated 1218, witnessed by "Guillelmi filii mei primogeniti…"[616]. m SIBYLLE, daughter of --- (-after 6 Jun 1242). A charter dated Nov 1239 records an agreement between "Guillermum Maengoti" and l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, later confirmed by "Guillermum et Hugonem filios ipsius et Sibillam relictam eius, tutricem jamdictorum Guillermi et Hugonis"[617]. King Henry III granted letters of protection to "Sibilla domina de Surgeres", dated 6 Jun 1242[618]. Guillaume & his wife had two children:
(a) GUILLAUME . "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, with the consent of "Willelmi Maengoti primogeniti filii mei…miles et Hugo tunc temporis valetus, filii mei", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[619]. A charter dated Nov 1239 records an agreement between "Guillermum Maengoti" and l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, later confirmed by "Guillermum et Hugonem filios ipsius et Sibillam relictam eius, tutricem jamdictorum Guillermi et Hugonis"[620]. "Guillermus Maengoti miles dominus Surgeriarum" donated property to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, "ratione Hugonis de Surgeriis militis defuncti avunculi nostri", by charter dated Sep 1254[621].
(b) HUGUES . "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, with the consent of "Willelmi Maengoti primogeniti filii mei…miles et Hugo tunc temporis valetus, filii mei", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[622]. A charter dated Nov 1239 records an agreement between "Guillermum Maengoti" and l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, later confirmed by "Guillermum et Hugonem filios ipsius et Sibillam relictam eius, tutricem jamdictorum Guillermi et Hugonis"[623].
ii) HUGUES Maingot . "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, with the consent of "Willelmi Maengoti primogeniti filii mei…miles et Hugo tunc temporis valetus, filii mei", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[624].
b) GEOFFROY de Surgères (-before 29 Aug 1217). "Hugo de Surgeriis vicecomes Castri Airaudi" confirmed the donation of rights at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent by "Willelmus Maengo dominus de Surgeriis, frater noster", in the presence of "Guaufrido de Surgeriis fratre nostro milite", by charter dated 29 Apr 1208[625]. "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, for the souls of "domini Willelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mæ et dominæ Bartholomeæ uxoris meæ et Hugonis de Surgeriis et Gaufridi de Surgeriis fratrum meorum", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[626].
Guillaume & his [second] wife had one child:
c) HUGUES de Surgères ([1175/80]-Acre 1212). Vicomte de Châtellerault. At an enquiry into the rights of the vicomte de Châtellerault to "castro Sancti Remigii", one witness testified that, after "dominus Radulfus de Mortemer", "dominus Hugo de Surgeres" possessed Châtellerault, a subsequent witness specifying that "dominus Hugo de Surgeres" held Châtellerault after the death of "vicecomes Hugo de Castro-Aeraudi" when "domino Aemerico de Castro-Aeraudi" refused to take possession, while another witness testified that Philippe II "Auguste" King of France had granted Châtellerault to "domino Hugoni de Surgeres"[627]. "Hugo de Surgeriis vicecomes de Castri Araudi" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron by charter dated [1201/04][628]. The 13th century Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d´Angleterre names "Hughes li Bruns et li cuens d´Eu ses freres et Hughes de Surgieres ses freres, qui viscuens estoit del Castel-Eraut..." among those who besieged Savary de Mauléon at "el castiel de Niors", dated to [1205/07] from the context[629]. "Hugo de Surgeriis vicecomes Castri Airaudi" confirmed the donation of rights at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent by "Willelmus Maengo dominus de Surgeriis, frater noster", in the presence of "Guaufrido de Surgeriis fratre nostro milite", by charter dated 29 Apr 1208[630]. "Hugues de Surgères" donated rent from "Exoudun" to Fontevraud, confirmed by "Raoul II d´Exoudun", dated May 1208[631]. "Comes Augi" pledged his lands for his homage to Philippe II King of France, and that of "fratres sui comes Marchie et vicecomes Castri Eraudi" dated (by Delisle) to [1209][632]. "Hugo de Surgeriis, vicecomes Castri Airaudi" confirmed that "Hugo, beate Marie Castri Airaudi et beati Hylarii Pictavensis decanus" on his deathbed had bequeathed revenue to Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated 1211, witnessed by "Radulfo de Mortemario fratre predicti decani…"[633]. The Chronicon Bernardi Iterii records the death at Acre in 1212 of "Hugo de Surgeiras vicecomes de Chastel airau"[634].
2. GIRBERT (-after 1174). "Guillelmus Maengoti et Girbertus frater meus" granted duty exemptions to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères by charter dated 1174[635].
Internet genealogies suffer a well-known defect -- many of them accept as true many lines that are known by scholars to be false. Geni is no exception. In Geni’s early days, many users uploaded GEDCOM files with sleo purious and fantastic genealogies. As users we’ve done a lot of cleanup, merging duplicates and cutting bad connections, but there is a lot of work still to do.
Usually, the term “Descents from Antiquity” refers to modern efforts to find plausible lines of descent. However, it can also include traditional descents that have varying degrees of reliability.
This project is designed to help clean up the many fictitious genealogies and to focus attention on legitimate debate about extending our shared genealogy. You can help us by identifying questionable lines. It is generally unhelpful to simply say something like, “No one can prove a descent from Julius Caesar.” What is most helpful is to identify the specific generations where the evidence fails, search for reliable sources, then start a discussion.
Because Geni is a collaborative environment, you should be cautious about cutting any connections mentioned here without starting a discussion and giving other users ample opportunity to weigh in.
Medieval forgeries A common belief in antiquity and in the middle ages was that tribes took their name from a common ancestor. For example, the Historia Brittonum (Nennius, 9th century) names Alanus as the first man to live in Europe. He had a son Hiscion, and Hiscion’s four sons Francus, Romanus, Alamanus, and Brutus were the ancestors respectively of the French, Romans, Germans, and British. The name of this Alanus was probably a corrupted form of Mannus, the Old Germanic god who was the ancestor of mankind. Some scholars believe that Mannus was another name for Bor, the father of the god Odin in Norse tradition. In English, German and the Scandinavian languages we get our word man from Mannus.
When the Europeans converted to Christianity, they had a problem. Their royal families were only a few generations removed from the old gods. And, worse. Exposed to Roman arts and sciences, they discovered the idea of “historical time”. The world was older than they had ever thought about. Their royal pedigrees weren’t long enough to go back to the creation of the world.
From the Romans they learned that modern science had proved that everyone on earth was descended from Adam and Eve. (It said so in the Christian scriptures, which were absolutely true -- according the scholars.)
The answer was simple and obvious. The old gods had to have been humans, famous men and great warriors who came to worshipped as gods. And, if they were human, they must have been descended from Adam and Eve like everyone else. The trick was to figure out how.
One of the earliest surviving attempts to create this kind of genealogy is the Historia Brittonum by the Welsh monk Nennius (9th century), who recorded the following genealogy:
(1) Noah, his son (2) Japheth, his son (3) Joham, his son (4) Jobath, his son (5) Bath, his son (6) Hisrau, his son (7) Esraa, his son (8) Ra, his son (9) Aber, his son (10) Ooth, his son (11) Ethec, his son (12) Aurthack, his son (13) Ecthactur, his son (14) Ecthactur, his son (15) Mair, his son (16) Semion, his son (17) Boibus, his son (18) Thoi, his son (19) Ogomuin, his son (20) Fethuir, and his son (21) Alanus.
Nennius also tied Alanus to Rome by making him a husband of Rhea Silvia, whose twin sons Romulus and Remus are said to have founded Rome in 753 BCE. The connection is scarcely credible historically, but served neatly to graft the eponymous ancestors of the northern Europeans onto classical tradition by making them brothers of Romulus, the eponymous ancestor of the Romans.
These medieval genealogies connecting ancient kings to Adam are pure invention. They are interesting now because they show the history of history.
England The Anglo-Saxons, forerunners of the modern English, were ruled by kings who claimed to be descended from the god Woden (Odin in the Norse versions). In later Scandinavian versions, Woden was the son of Bor, son of Búri. Some scholars believe that in the Germanic version, which included the Anglo-Saxons, Woden was the son of Mannus, the ancestor of mankind, who was son of Tuisto.
English monks kept Woden, but dumped Bor and Búri. They “discovered” that Woden was descended from Noah, but the process took several tries.
In one place, the 9th century Anglo-Saxon chronicle gives the following line. There are too few generations here, but this fragment might preserve the earliest non-divine version of Woden’s ancestry.
(1) Noah, his son (2) ---, his son (3) Finn, who was born in the ark, his son (4) Freothelaf, his son (5) Frithuwald, his son (6) Woden.
About the same time, Nennius in his Historia Brittonum gives a slightly different version. Here we get two more generations beyond Finn, which might also represent an authentic tradition.
(1) Geat, “who, as they say, was the son of a god”, his son (2) Godwulf, his son (3) Finn, his son (4) Frithuwulf, his son (5) Frithowald, and his son (6) Woden.
Nennius gives us more theology than genealogy. He says that Geat “as they say, was the son of a god, not of the omnipotent God and our Lord Jesus Christ (who before the beginning of the world, was with the Father and the Holy Spirit, co-eternal and of the same substance, and who, in compassion to human nature, disdained not to assume the form of a servant), but the offspring of one of their idols, and whom, blinded by some demon, they worshipped according to the custom of the heathen.”
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of documents rather than a single document. In another place (855), it gives a fuller line.
(1) Noe [Noah], his son (2) Sceaf, his son (3) Bedwig Sceafing, his son (4) Hwala Bedwiging, his son (5) Haþra Hwalaing, his son (6) Itermon Haðraing, his son (7) Heremod Itermoning, his son (8) Sceldwea Heremoding, his son (9) Beaw Sceldwaing, his son (10) Taetwa Beawing, his son (11) Geat Taetwaing, his son (12) God wulf Geating, his son (13) Fin Godwulfing, his son (14) Frealaf Finning, and his son (15) Woden Frealafing. (Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, Plummer and Earle (eds.), 66, 67 and note 6).
A note says, “id est filius Noe se waes geboren on þaere earce Noes.” That is, “he [Sceaf] is the son of Noah, he was born in Noah’s ark.” This detail ties the old pagan tradition to the new Christian tradition. Sceaf was a Norse god who arrived by boat as a baby to rule the Danes. Now, he is neatly made the son of the Christian ark builder.
Later monks, perhaps competing for prestige with the Franks, decided to dump Noah and take Woden’s ancestry back to Troy, then connect the Trojans to the Jewish scriptures. This version runs as follows. Note that the names of the new generations, between (10) and (16) have been drawn chiefly from nicknames of the old god Thor. Some of the other names might have been invented in a similar way.
(1) Judah, ancestor of the tribe of Judah, his son (2) Zara, his son (3) Darda, his son (4) Erichthonious, his son (5) Tros, his son (6) Ilus, his son (7) Laomedon, his son (8) Tithonius, his son (9) Memnon, his son (10) Thor, his son (11) Einridi, his son (12) Vingethor, his son (13) Vingener, his son (14) Móda, his son (15) Magi [Noe], his son (16) Sceaf [Seskef], his son (17) Bedwig [Bedvig], his son (18) Hwala, his son (19) Hrathra [Annarr], his son (20) Itermon [Ítermann], his son (21) Heremod [Heremód], his son (22) Heremod [Heremód], his son (23) Beaw [Bjárr], his son (24) Tætwa, his son (25) Geat [Ját], his son (26) Godwulf [Gudólfr], his son (27) Finn, his son (28) Frithuwulf, his son (29) Frealaf [Fridleifr], his son Frealaf [Fridleifr], his son (30) Freawine, his son (31) Frithuwald, and his son (32) Woden.
Attempts to reconcile these genealogies by equating the human Frithuwald with the divine Bor, and the human Frealaf with divine Búri have been problematic, because they end by giving Woden a set of mythical relatives that include the Ice Giants.
France The Franks, a confederation of Germanic tribes that formed the core of modern France, claimed descent from Francus (or Francio). According to one version of the story, Francus and his people were defeated by the Roman general Drusus in 11 BCE. Francus was killed, and they were relocated to the region between the Rhine and the Danube.
Frankish monks linked Francus to the kings of Troy. The Chronicle of Fredegar (7th century) mentions the legend. It was elaborated in the Liber historiae Francorum (probably 727). Successive generations continued adding new details.
In other words, the Franks claimed to be the distant cousins of the Romans (who claimed descent from Aeneas, another Trojan). It was a nice piece of political propaganda because it fit nicely with two things the Franks wanted to emphasize: (1) as cousins of the Romans they were equal to the Romans, and (2) as cousins and equals, they were the legitimate successors of the Roman empire.
The Grandes Chroniques de France (13th - 15th centuries), a vast compilation of historic material, refers to the Trojan origins of the French dynasty.
Johannes Trithemius' De origine gentis Francorum compendium (1514) describes the Franks as originally Trojans (called "Sicambers" or "Sicambrians") after the fall of Troy who came into Gaul after being forced out of the area around the mouth of the Danube by the Goths in 439 BCE (1:33). He also details the reigns of each of these kings—including Francus (43:76) from whom the Franks are named—and their battles with the Gauls, Goths, Saxons, etc.
(Source: Wikipedia, Francus)
Ireland John O'Hart (1824-1902), an Irish genealogist used ancient sources, such as the Lebor Gabála Érenn and the Annals of the Four Masters, to compile a genealogical history of Ireland, Irish pedigrees; or, The origin and stem of the Irish nation (1876). According to his work, the Irish kings are descended from Adam as follows:
- Adam
- Seth
- Enos
- Cainan
- Mahalaleel
- Jared
- Enoch
- Methuselah
- Lamech
- Noah
- Japhet
- Magog
- Baoth ("to whom Scythia came as his lot")
- Phoeniusa Farsaidh (Fenius Farsa), King of Scythia
- Neuil
- Gaodhal (Gathelus), married Scota
- Asruth
- Sruth (who fled Egypt to Creta)
- Heber Scut (returned to Scythia)
- Beouman, King of Scythia
- Ogaman, King of Scythia
- Tait, King of Scythia
- Agnon (who fled Scythia by sea with the majority of his people)
- Lamhfionn (who led his people to Gothia or Getulia, where Carthage was afterwards built)
- Heber Glunfionn, King of Gothia
- Agnan Fionn, King of Gothia
- Febric Glas, King of Gothia
- Nenuall, King of Gothia
- Nuadhad, King of Gothia
- Alladh, King of Gothia
- Arcadh, King of Gothia
- Deag, King of Gothia
- Brath, King of Gothia (who left Gothia with a large band of his people and settled in Galicia, Spain)
- Breoghan, King of Galicia, Andalusia, Murcia, Castile, and Portugal
- Bile, King of Galicia, Andalusia, Murcia, Castile, and Portugal
- Galamh (also known as Milesius of Spain), King of Galicia, Andalusia, Murcia, Castile, and Portugal, married Scota
(Source: Wikipedia, John O’Hart)
Note: We need to clarify the extent to which O’Hart’s genealogies follow ancient sources, and whether any of it was his own invention.
Ostrogoths The historian Jordanes wrote De origine actibusque Getarum ((The Origin and Deeds of the Getae/Goths, c531), commonly called the Getica. In it, he gives the history of the Goths.
Jordanes traces the Ostrogothic royal family, the Amelungs (Amali), to Hulmul, son of Gapt (Getica, 14). This Gapt is thought to be the same person as the Norse god Gaut or Geat. His son Hulmul was probably the same person as Humli, the ancestor of the Danes in Norse tradition. In a vairant version, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (13th century) says, "Of old, they say, Humli over Huns did rule, Gizur the Gauts, the Goths Angantyr, Valdar the Danes, the Romans Kjar, Alrek the Valiant the English people."
The genealogy seems to be artificial. Athalaric (?-534), king of the Ostrogoths in Jordanes time, is presented as the 17th Amal king of the Goths since Gapt, just as there had been 17 Roman kings between Aeneas and Romulus. Thus, the Amal dynasty presented itself as a second gens Iulia, ruling both Romans and Goths. In fact, the Amal dynasty is documented no earlier than Theodoric's father or grandfather, an ally of Attila the Hun. The Goths themselves are documented no earlier than 291.
- Gapt
- Hulmul
- Augis
- Amal (from whom the name of the Amali comes)
- Hisarnis
- Ostrogotha
- Hunuil
- Athal
- Achiulf
- Oduulf
- Achiulf
- Ansila
- Ediulf
- Vultuulf
- Hermanaric
- Vultuulf
- Valaravans
- Vinitharius
- Vandalarius
- Thiudimer
- Valamir
- Vidimer
- Thiudimer
- Theodoric the Great (454-526), King of the Ostrogoths
The legend that Aeneas escaped the Fall of Troy (about 1200 BCE) and journeyed to Italy goes back to at least the 5th century BCE. By 400 BCE, Aeneas was being venerated in Italy as the god Iuppiter Indiges, the tribal ancestor of Latins and Etruscans.
In some Roman traditions, Iulus, the semi-divine ancestor of gens Iulia, was identical with Aeneas’ son Ascanius (Vergil). In other traditions, Iulus was the son of Aeneas by his Trojan wife, Creusa, while Ascanius was the son of Aeneas' Latin wife Lavinia, daughter of Latinus (Livy). And, in still another tradition, Iulus was son of Ascanius, and disputed the throne with Silvius after Ascanius' death (Dionysius of Halicarnasus).
When medieval monks were inventing new genealogies Aeneas was a popular figure. In the Norse saga, the Deluding of Gylfe, he is called Anea. Medieval Welsh genealogies called him Annyn Tro. In one Welsh source he is called a son of Brydain (eponymous of Britain) and a grandson of Aedd Mawr (Edward the Great) who lived about 1300 BCE. These chronologies are too confused to be credible.
Anna, kinswoman of the Virgin Mary The early Welsh royal families claimed to be relatives of the family of Jesus.
According to Harleian MS. 3958, Beli Mawr was husband to Anna (who may be a confabulation of Dôn), a "near kinswoman [consobrina] of the Virgin Mary." A medieval tradition identifies her as a sister (or daughter) of Joseph of Arimathea, but the tradition is not old enough to be authentic. There is no reason to think she was an historical figure.
Dôn seems to have been a Christianized version of the Celtic goddess Anû, the mother goddess of the Celts. In Gaul she was called Belisama. In Ireland she was Danu, the matriarch of the Túatha Dé Danann, who took their name from her. The Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh legends, calls her Dôn, sister of Mâth mab Mathonwy, King of Gwynedd.
"Chronologically speaking, if Anna married a Briton after her father arrived in this country, then we must assume that she was nearer to Jesus' age than her cousin, Mary (ie. born c. 0). Beli is recorded in the Mabinogion and Welsh Genealogies as having been the father of Caswallon (or Cassivellaunus), the leader of the Celtic tribes who repelled Cæsar's invasions of 55 & 54 bc. He could, therefore, not possibly have married Anna of Arimathea. Moreover, the local ruler whom Joseph received his land gift from, is said to have been Arfyrag (or Arviragus), Beli & Anna's supposed great great grandson." (David Nash Ford, "St. Joseph of Arimathea: Ancestor of Kings?" in Early British Kingdoms (visited Nov. 21, 2011).
King Arthur If King Arthur was a real person, as many scholars believe, then he was a war leader in 6th century Britain. Some part of his life might have been authentically recorded by English monks such as Gildas (c500-570), Bede (672/3-736), Nennius (9th century), and Geoffrey of Monmouth (c1100-c1155). However, these accounts are confused and contradictory. Arthur might have been related in some way to the Roman aristocrat Ambrosius Aurelianus, although the relationship is first recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who was writing 600 years later.
There is no doubt about Ambrosius’ existence. He was mentioned in a near contemporary document by the monk Gildas, who says he won an important battle against the invading Anglo-Saxons. Some scholars believe it is possible to sketch a brief genealogy for Ambrosius, perhaps from the Roman usurper Constantine III or from a distant cousin of the Emperor Theodosius I (or both).
In modern times there has been an explosion of genealogies drawn from Grail romances that turn fictional characters from the 11th and 12th centuries into historical people. The seminal works for these genealogies are Holy Blood, Holy Gail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln (1982) and Bloodline of the Holy Grail, by Laurence Gardner (1996). They are best characterized as “alternative history”.
Beli Mawr The early Welsh royal families claimed to be descended from Beli Mawr.
Beli Mawr was in fact a Welsh version the Celtic sun god. Among the Brythonic Celts he was Belenus (the Shining One), a fertility god who looked after sheep and cattle. In Ireland, he was Bilé, the god of death. His festival was Beltaine (Fire of Bel), held May 1st. On that day, purifying fires were lit.
According to the Mabinogion his name was Beli son of Mynogan. Wikipedia says, "However, it should be noted that in medieval Welsh tradition, Beli Mawr is often given the patronymic fab Manogan / Mynogan ("son of Manogan"). This appears to derive from a textual garbling of the name of a real historical figure, Adminius, son of Cunobelinus; after being transmitted through the Roman authors Suetonius and Orosius, this name became Bellinus filius Minocanni in the medieval Latin text from Wales, Historia Brittonum. Thus, although Beli became a separate personage in medieval pseudohistory from Cunobelinus (Welsh Cynfelyn, Shakespeare's Cymbeline), he was generally presented as a king reigning in the period immediately before the Roman invasion; his "son" Caswallawn is the historical Cassivellaunus."
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, his name was Heli, he succeeded his father Digueillus, and he reigned 40 years.
The Mabinogion names his three sons as Lludd, Casswallawn and Nynnyaw, or four sons Lludd, Casswallawn, Llevelys and Eveyd. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, he had three sons, Lud, Cassivelaunus and Nennius.
Brân the Blessed The early Welsh royal families claimed to be descended from Brân the Blessed and his father Llŷr Llediath.
Brân was legendary king of the Silures, probably originating as a Christianized form of the Celtic god Brân. He is one of the principal characters of the 1st Branch of the Mabinogion, which begins "Bran the Blessed (Bendigeidfran), the son of Llyr and Penarddun, daughter of Beli son of Mynogan, was ruler of Britain. Bran was the brother of Manawyddan and Branwen (Bronwen), and the half-brother of Nissyen and Evnissyen." He is said to have been succeeded by his uncle Caswallawn.
In Christian legend Brân is said to have been baptized in Rome in 36 CE. "Bran was said to have been taken as a captive to Rome where he joined the household of St. Paul. Returning to Britain, with SS. Aristobulus and Joseph of Arimathea some years later, he became among the first to introduce Christianity to the Island, hence his epithet of "the Blessed". This whole story is a late 17th century fabrication based on misinformation." (David Nash Ford, "Bran Fendigaid alias Bendigeitvran: Celtic God of Regeneration" in Early British Kingdoms(http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/bran.html, visited Nov. 21, 2011)
The story of Brân's conversion to Christianity is probably a confusion with the historical Cunobelin (Arfyrag's father) who was thought to have been taken captive to Rome where he became converted to Christianity. (David Nash Ford, "St. Joseph of Arimathea: Ancestor of Kings?" in Early British Kingdoms (http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/articles/josanc.html, visited Nov. 21, 2011). Brân and Cunobelin both had sons named Caradoc, and the different Caradocs became confused. There is, no doubt an added confusion of Caradocs here, as far too few generations are given.
In Arthurian romance Brân became Bron(s), the Fisher King. He is said to have married Enygeus, a sister of Joseph of Arimathea and of Anna the Prophetess (perhaps the same person as Anna, the near kinswoman of the Virgin Mary. She had 12 sons, including Alain de Borron. This story mangles the earlier version, in which Brân was a grandson of Anna, the sister (or daughter) of Joseph of Arimathea.
In the Arthurian romance 'Bonedd yr Arwyr, Brân is made both a paternal and maternal ancestor of King Arthur.
Brutus The early Welsh kings claimed descent from Brutus, the legendary 1st King of Britain, which is said to have been named for him.
Welsh genealogists called him Brwt. He is said to have founded Troia Nova ("New Troy"), which became corrupted to Trinovantum, and now is London. He is not mentioned in any classical source and is not considered to be historical.
Brutus was first mentioned in the 9th century, by Nennius, who says he was a son of Hiscion, grandson of Alanus (Mannus), and a descendant of Noah. One variant makes him a grandson or great grandson of the Trojan hero Aeneas, great grandson of the legendary Roman king Numa Pompilius, and traces his genealogy to Japheth, son of Noah. Another variant makes him the son of Silvius and grandson of Ascanius, the father of Aeneas, and traces his genealogy to Ham, son of Noah. [Historia Brittonum.]
Geoffrey of Monmouth says Brutus was son of Silvius and grandson of Ascanius. He was exiled from Italy. He went to Greece, and liberated the Trojans enslaved there. Then, he crossed to the island of Albion, which he re-named for himself, and became the first king. After his death, each of his sons received one-third of Britain, Locrinus (England), Albanactus (Scotland) and Kamber (Wales).
Many scholars believe the Hiscion son of Alanus named by Nennius as Brutus' father was identical to the Istro son of Mannus, who appears in Germanic tradition as the eponymous ancestor of the Istvaeones, one of the three divisions of Germanic proto-tribes.
Charlemagne Millions of people in the world today are descendants of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne, and they can prove it. Charlemagne’s family were upstarts, however. There are no proven links between Charlemagne and his predecessors in the Merovingian dynasty. In fact, Charlemagne has only 10 proven ancestors. Using Ahnentafel numbering, his ancestry looks like this:
- Charlemagne
- Pepin the Short, father
- Bertrade of Laon, mother
- Charles Martel, father’s father
- Rotrude, father’s mother
- Caribert of Laon, mother’s father
- ---
- Pepin of Herstal, father’s father’s father
- Alpaida, father’s father’s mother
- ---
- ---
- ---
- Bertrada of Prüm, mother’s father’s mother
- ---
- ---
- Ansegisel, father’s father’s father’s father
- Begga, father’s father’s father’s mother
Some modern scholars, working with original documents, believe they have found evidence to show that Charlemagne’s ancestry can be traced, probably, to an old Roman senatorial family. The reconstruction is plausible, because the Franks who Charlemagne ruled had conquered the old Roman province of Gaul in 486, and the Franks are known to have intermarried with the surviving Gallo-Roman aristocracy.
- Flavius Afranius Syagrius, of Lyons; a Gallo-Roman senator
- (Syagria), his unknown daughter; married Ferreolus
- Tonantius Ferreolus, a Gallo-Roman senator; married Papianilla, clarissima femina, a relative of the Papianilla who was a daughter of the emperor Avitus, and who married Sidonius Apollinaris
- Tonantius Ferreolus, a Gallo-Roman senator; married Industria
- Ferreolus, a Gallo-Roman senator; married Dode, abbess of St.-Pierre de Rheims
- Ansbert, a senator; married Bilichilde
- Arnoald, Bishop of Metz
- Dode, probably his daughter; married St. Arnulf, Bishop of Metz
- Ansegisel, probably their son; married St. Begga; daughter of Pepin I, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia
- Pepin of Herstal, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia; married Alpais / Alpaida
- Charles Martel, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia; married Rotrude
- Pepin the Short, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia; married Bertrada of Laon
- Charlemagne
Using this reconstruction as a starting point, many other scholars have attempted to extend Charlemagne’s ancestry further, with varying degrees of success.
Charles Constantine Charles Constantine (c903-c962), comte de Vienne and de Bellay, was a son of Louis III the Blind (c883-928), Holy Roman Emperor. His mother was either the Burgundian princess Adelais or the Byzantine princess Anna Myakes.
The debate over Charles Constantine’s ancestry is very heated. Anna Myakes was a daughter of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI. There were negotiations to betroth her to Louis III but it isn't clear whether the marriage ever took place. If the marriage did take place, and if Charles Constantine was a son of that marriage, his ancestry would include Byzantine emperors Leo VI and Leo's father, either Basil I or Michael III.
A key part of the debate is whether Charles really had the nickname Constantine. The name was uncommon in the west, so it supports the theory, accepted by Septimani, that his mother was the Byzantine princess Anna. However, the name might refer only to his imperial ancestry. Flodoard (894-966) called him Charles Constantine, but the evidence that he used the name in his lifetime is too weak to be reliable. A diploma of his father and his own charters call him only Charles.
Érimón mac Míl Espáine According to ancient Irish sources Érimón mac Míl Espáine brought his people, the Milesians, to Ireland about 500 BCE, and conquered it from an older race, the Tuatha Dé Danann. (See the Lebor Gabála Érenn, and others.) The story might (very arguably) have some foundation, but cannot be proven or disproven. (See above, under Ireland)
Francus French monks claimed that a Trojan prince, Francus, was the eponymous ancestor of the Frankish kings. Francus is first mentioned in Nennius' Historia Brittonum (8th century) as the son of Hiscion, and eponymous ancestor of the Franks. His Trojan ancestry came later.
In the Renaissance, Francus was generally considered to be another name for the Trojan hero Astyanax (son of Hector), who was saved from the destruction of Troy.
Jean Lemaire de Belges's Illustrations de Gaule et Singularités de Troie (1510–12) has Astyanax survive the fall of Troy and arrive in Western Europe. He changes his name to Francus and becomes king of Celtic Gaul (while, at the same time, Bavo, cousin of Priam, comes to the city of Trier) and founds the dynasty leading to Pepin and Charlemagne.[9] He is said to have founded and named the city of Paris in honor of his uncle Paris.
Gilles Corrozet's La Fleur des antiquitez... de Paris (1532) describes the French king Francis I as the 64th descendant of Hector of Troy.
In Pierre de Ronsard's epic poem La Franciade (1572), the god Jupiter saves Astyanax (renamed Francus). The young hero arrives in Crete and falls in love with the princess Hyanthe with whom he is destined to found the royal dynasty of France.
(Source: Wikipedia, Francus)
Genuissa, wife of Arvirargus Venissa (Genissa, Genvissa, Genuissa) is a fictional person who serves to link the Welsh kings to ancient Rome.
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th century Historia Regum Britanniae, she was a daughter of the Roman Emperor Claudius, whom he gave in marriage to the British king Arvirargus once he had submitted to Rome.
According to Geoffrey's account she was very beautiful, and so enchanted Arvirargus that he preferred her company to anyone else's. He founded Gloucester, supposedly named after Claudius, in her honour. When Arvirargus fell out with Rome and Vespasian was sent to enforce a reconciliation, Venissa acted as mediator between them.
Venissa cannot be considered historical. She is not mentioned in authentic Roman history; her supposed husband Arvirargus is known only from a cryptic reference in Satire IV, a 2nd century satirical poem by Juvenal; and it is in any case inconceivable that a daughter, even an illegitimate daughter, of a Roman emperor could be given in marriage to a barbarian without attracting comment. Nonetheless, she and her husband, identified with the historical Caratacus, appear in many uncritical genealogies originating in the Tudor period.
(Source: Wikipedia, Venissa)
Joseph of Arimathea The Christian scriptures say that Joseph of Arimathea was an influential member of the Sanhedrin who petitioned Pontius Pilate for Jesus’ body, but give no details about his life or family. According to the Talmud, he was the younger brother of the father of the Virgin Mary. That is, he was Mary's uncle and Jesus' great-uncle.
Some modern writers venture that he might be identified with Josephus (Jewish: Yosef ben Matityahu, Roman: Titus Flavius Josephus), a Jewish historian and an apologist for the Roman empire. However, scholars dismiss the idea. Josephus was born in 37 CE, making him a generation younger than Jesus, so it would not be possible he was Jesus' great uncle.
The first mention of Joseph of Arimathea in connection with Britain is the Life of Mary Magdalene by Rabanus Maurus (766-856), Archbishop of Mainz. Jseoph first appears as the legendary Keeper of the Holy Grail in Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (early 13th century), which says he settled in Britain after the Crucifixion of Jesus, bringing the Holy Grail with him. The story spawned a rich literature on the same theme. Later tradition says he was a wealthy merchant who owned tin mines in Cornwall. Some popular fiction has him bringing Jesus with him to Britain to be trained by Druids there.
Lleuver Mawr (to be added)
Llyr Lediaith The early Welsh royal families claimed to be descended from Llŷr Llediath.and his son Brân the Blessed.
The story is not reliable. Llyr was a Celtic sea god, cognate of the Irish god Lir, but perhaps also a historical King of the Silures. As an historical figure, he is said to have been educated in Rome by Augustus Caesar. His home was at Dunraven castle, situated on a hill called Twyn Rhyvan (the Hill of Rome) in Glamorgan.
He was used by Shakespeare as a prototype for King Lear.
Makhir of Narbonne Makhir of Narbonne (8th century) was the leader of the Jewish community of Narbonne, and the ancestor of an important family there. Prof. Arthur Zuckerman suggested that he was the same person as Natronai ben Habibi, an exilarch who was deposed and exiled from Baghdad (A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France, 1972). He also suggested that Makhir was the same person as Maghario, Count of Narbonne.
Zuckerman went further. In the poem Willehalm by Wolfram von Eschenbach (c1170-c1220), the hero Guillem de Gellone is the son of Aymeri de Narbonne by his wife Alda / Aldana, daughter of Charles Martel. Guillem de Gellone's real-life counterpart was Guillaume I, comte de Toulouse, son of Theodoric, a count in Septimania. Zuckerman suggested that the poem changed the names, but memorialized actual relationships. So, Guillaume's father Theodoric must have been the same person as Aymeri. Then, Zuckerman identified Theodoric / Aymeri with Makhi / Natronai / Maghario.
Scholars have dismissed Zuckerman's methodology as flawed. Nevertheless, Guillaume de Toulouse might have been Jewish. He led the Frankish forces when they captured Barcelona in 801. The campaign was memorialized in a poem In honorem Hludovici imperatoris ("In honour of Emperor Louis") (826), by Ermoldus Nigellus. The poem uses Jewish dating and portrays Guillaume de Toulouse as an observant Jew.
Muhammad Modern genealogists have attempted to find a line of descent from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) through the rulers of Muslim Spain.
There is a possible line, through Zaida, the wife or concubine of Alfonso VI of Castile, but it is disputed.
The first problem with the line is that it comes through Ayesha, the wife of Yazîd I, the 2nd Umayyad Caliph (680-683). The Caliph’s descendants claimed that Ayesha was a daughter of Mohammad, a link that would substantially enhance their legitimacy. However, Muslim scholars say she was Muhammad's step-daughter, not his daughter. The title Sharif is accorded only to descendants of Muhammad’s daughter Fatima.
The second problem is that it is not entirely clear that Zaïda was really descended from Ayesha. Zaïda was a daughter-in-law (and probably also niece) of al-Mutamid, ruler of the taifa of Seville. He was a descendant of Ayesha, and if she was his niece, she shared that descent. Zaïda’s first husband was (her cousin?) Fath al-Ma'mum, the ruler of Córdoba and son of the Emir of Seville. He was killed in 1091 while trying to escape a seige of Córdoba. Zaïda made her way as a refugee to the court of Alfonso VI. He was already mature (age 51), married to a queen who was ill, and was lacking a male heir. Zaïda became his concubine, converted to Christianity, and took the Christian name Isabel. She bore Alfonso his only surviving son Sancho. It is not clear whether Alfonso subsequently married her. Her tombstone, erected long after her death, says, "Aqui descansa la reina Isabel, mujer del rey Alfonso, hija de Aben-Abeth, rey de Sevilla; que antes se llamaba Zayda," which translates as "here lies Queen Elizabeth, wife of King Alfonso, daughter of Aben-abeth, king of Seville; previously called Zaïda."
The third problem is that there are no known descents from Zaïda. Her only proven son Sancho died in childhood. It’s possible, however, that Zaïda might have been the same person as Alfonso’s wife Elisabeth. Elisabeth had two daughters who became the ancestors of many European royal families. Elisabeth’s burial plaque, erected long after her death, says she was a daughter of Louis [VI], but that would be chronologically impossible. She might have been a sister of Louis VI, or the plaque might be an attempt to disguise her non-Christian identity.
Pagano Ebriaci Pagano Ebriaci (?-c1091), of Pisa, ancestor of the Christian Ebriaci family, might have been a convert from Judaism, a son of Joseph of Fustat. The relationship is conjectural, and seems to have originated in the suggestion that the surname Ebriaci means "the Hebrew". Another theory is that the name Ebriaci might derive from a Latin word meaning drunk.
If Pagano Ebriaci was a son of Joseph of Fustat, then he was a grandson of Hezekiah IV, 38th Exilarch and a descendant of King David.
Pagano Ebriaci was an ancestor of Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel, through Manfredo III, marchese di Saluzzo.
Scota She is a legendary figure from whom the Scots took their name. She is said to have been the daughter of an unnamed Eyptian pharaoh. The context of her story shows that the Irish thought of her as a daughter of the pharaoh of the Exodus and a contemporary of Moses.
There are two different versions of her place in the genealogy. She was the wife either of Gaodhal Glas or of his descendant Míl Espáine.
An 11th century rescenison of the Historia Brittonum menions Scota. She also appears in the Book of Leinster, a 12th century redaction of the Lebor Gabála Érenn, where she married Geytholos (Gaodhal Glas). The earliest Scottish sources claim Geytholos was "a certain king of the countries of Greece, Neolus, or Heolaus, by name", while the Leinster redaction of the Lebor Gabála Érenn calls him a Scythian.
In variant manuscripts of the Lebor Gabála Érenn, Scota's husband was Míl Espáine.
Faced with the discrepancy, modern genealogists have created two Scotas.
There are many guesses about her father, Scota the wife of Gaodhal Glas being (perhaps) daughter of Pharaoh Cingeris, and Scota the wife of Míl Espáine being (perhaps) daughter of Pharaoh Nactabaeus. Both pharaohs are named only in medieval Irish sources, not in Egyptian sources.
Some genealogists make one or both women the daughter of whichever pharaoh they believe was the pharaoh of the Exodus.
Tamar Tephi Tamar Tephi and Teia Tephei are said to have been daughters of Zedekiah, King of Judah, but they are fictitious. Their descents from the kings of Judah is a 19th century fraud, from a misreading of old Irish sources.
According to the colorful story, Tamar Tephi and her sister Teia avoided the fate of their brothers, who were killed by the King of Babylon at Riblah. The prophet Jeremiah spirited them off to Ireland via Egypt and Spain, along with the Stone of the Covenant, which became known as Lia Fail (Stone of Destiny). (We are left wondering why Jeremiah was not equally helpful to the rest of the royal family.)
(Source: Wikipedia, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legendary_kings_of_Britain#Tea_Tephi List of legendary kings of Britain])
Resources
- Wikipedia, Descent from antiquity
2. ADRALD (-976 or after). vicecomes. castrum Adraldi. 937/976. "Guillelmus…Aquitanici ducatus comes" was present in a property transaction recorded by charter dated Jul 959 subscribed by "…Adraldi vicecomiti…"[488]. "Adraldi vicecomitis" subscribed the charter dated Oct 959 by which "Ermentrudis…a seniore meo Manegaudo relicta" donated property "alodus…Sanctenou…in pago Pictavo in vicaria Lausdunensi" to the abbey of Saint-Florent near Saumur[489]. "Adraldo vicecomes, Arbertus vicecomes, Kadeloni vicecomes…" subscribed the charter dated Jan 969 under which "Wilelmus…Aquitaniensium dux et cœnobii…Hylarii abbas" donated property to "Mainardo", at the request of "patruus noster domnus Ebolus, sancte Lemovicensis sedis episcopus atque…beati Hylarii archiclavus"[490]. "Kadelo vicecomes et uxor sua Senegundis" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 963 or 964 subscribed by "…Adraldi vicecomitis…"[491]. "Segoinus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 963 or 964 subscribed by "Bosoni nepotis ipsius, Adraldi vicecomitis"[492]. "…Adraldi vicecomitis…" subscribed the charter dated Jan [965/66] under which "Ebulus…Lemovicensium sedis episcopus" donated property to Saint-Maixent[493]. "Adraldus vicecomes et uxor mea Gersindis" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Vividonense in villa…Moncels" by charter dated Jul 969[494]. m GERSENDE, daughter of --- (-after Jul 969). "Adraldus vicecomes et uxor mea Gersindis" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Vividonense in villa…Moncels" by charter dated Jul 969[495]. Adrald & his wife had three children:
a) ACFRED [II] . "…Acfredi vicecomitis…Fulconi comitis" subscribed the donation by "Aimericus et frater eius Ramnulfus clericus" of property to St Cyprien, Poitiers by charter dated [987/96][496]. "Kadelus vicecomes et ucxor mea Ærsendis" donated property "in pago Pictavo in villa…Monte Vinardo" to Nouaillé by charter dated Jan 989, witnessed by "…Aimerici vicecomitis, Æcfridi vicecomitis…"[497]. "Guilelmi comitis, Aldeberti comitis, Guidoni vicecomitis, Ecfridi vicecomitis, Geraldi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris vicecomitis…" subscribed the charter dated 20 Apr 991 under which "Guilelmus…dux Aquitaniensium" granted rights to the abbey of Nouaillé[498]. "…Hecfridi vicecomitis…" subscribed the charter dated Dec 992 under which "Willelmus Aquitanorum comes et dux et uxor mea Hemma et filius noster equivocus Willelmus" donated property to Saint-Maixent[499]. m firstly RAINGARDIS, daughter of ---. "Acfredus et uxor mea Raingaudis et infantes nostri" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 989[500]. m secondly BEATRICE, daughter of ---. "Arbaldus et uxor mea Melensensis" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Ygrandinse in villa…Magniaco" to St Cyprien by charter dated [986/99] subscribed by "Hecfridi vicecomitis, Beatricis uxoris sua, Willelmi clerici filii Arbaldi"[501]. Acfred [II] & his first wife had [---] children:
i) children . "Acfredus et uxor mea Raingaudis et infantes nostri" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 989[502].
b) BOSO [I] (-before 1012). "Achardus filius Ebboni" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [990/99] subscribed by "…Bosonis filii Adraldi vicecomitis"[503]. "Guilelmi comitis, Aldeberti comitis, Guidoni vicecomitis, Ecfridi vicecomitis, Geraldi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris vicecomitis…" subscribed the charter dated 20 Apr 991 under which "Guilelmus…dux Aquitaniensium" granted rights to the abbey of Nouaillé[504]. "Rotbertus clericus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [987/90] subscribed by "…Acfredi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris sui, Ingelelmi consanguinei sui, Die uxoris eius, Ingelelmi filii sui, Arbaldi fratris sui"[505]. m AMELIA, daughter of ---. "Boso vicecomes et uxor mea…Amelia cum infantibus nostris" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1010] subscribed by "Hecfridi filii eorum, Hugoni filii eorum…"[506]. Boson [I] & his wife had three children:
i) ACFRED (-after [1046]). "…Acfredi vicecomitis" subscribed a charter dated Aug [1024/25] under which "Adraldus" donated property to Saint-Maixent[507]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. "…Acfridi vicecomitis de castello Adralde" subscribed a charter dated 5 Dec [1031/33] under which "Willelmus Engelbertus et Willelmus filius Ansemi, nomine Lambertum, et sororem eius…Abba" donated property to Saint-Maixent[508]. "Letgardis" donated property to St Cyprien, Poitiers "pro patre suo et matre…et pro fratre suo Aimerico…et pro fratre suo Viviano…et pro nepote suo Aimerico" by charter dated [1031/46], subscribed by "Letgardi sororis Tetbaudi, Viviani fratris sui, Aimerici nepotis sui, Rorigonis, Goscelini filii sui, Hecfridi vicecomitis"[509]. "Gosfredus cognomento Nivoni" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicario Igrandinse in villa Avalliaco" to St Cyprien by charter dated [1031/46] subscribed by "Richildis uxoris eius, Gauzelini filii sui, Astucie filie sue, Abboni filii sui, Hecfridi vicecomitis, Bosonis, Adraldi fratris sui, Bosoni filii sui, Goszelini, Ingebaldi nepotis Adraldi, Gosfredi de Colle nepotis eius"[510].
ii) HUGUES [I] (-[1070] or after). "…Hecfridi vicecomitis, Hugoni fratris sui…" subscribed a charter dated 1030 or 1031 under which "Raingardis" donated property "in pago Pictavo et in vicaria Ygrandinse in villa…Targiacus" to St Cyprien[511]. "Gaulterius cognomento Burseldus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1045] subscribed by "…Hugonis vicecomitis, Acfredi vicecomitis fratris sui"[512]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. "Hugo vicecomes de Castello Airaudi…et uxor sua Girberga" renounced rights in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated to [1055], which refers to "filios enim quos habebant non permittebat Deus diu vivere" and "Bosone…eorum filio", and is signed by "…Hugo frater vicecomitis de Castello Airaudi, et Jordanis de Castello Achardi…"[513]. "Hugo vicecomes" donated property to the priory of Saint-Nicolas de Poitiers by charter dated [1060][514]. m GERBERGE, daughter of ---. "Hugo vicecomes de Castello Airaudi…et uxor sua Girberga" renounced rights in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated to [1055], which refers to "filios enim quos habebant non permittebat Deus diu vivere" and "Bosone…eorum filio"[515]. The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified. Hugues [I] & his wife had [---] children:
(a) BOSON [II] (-[1095] or after). "Hugo vicecomes de Castello Airaudi…et uxor sua Girberga" renounced rights in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated to [1055], which refers to "filios enim quos habebant non permittebat Deus diu vivere" and "Bosone…eorum filio"[516]. Vicomte de Châtellerault.
- see below.
(b) other children (-before [1055]). "Hugo vicecomes de Castello Airaudi…et uxor sua Girberga" renounced rights in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated to [1055], which refers to "filios enim quos habebant non permittebat Deus diu vivere" and "Bosone…eorum filio"[517].
iii) FOUCHER . The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified. [1070/76]. m RAINFREDE [Sufficia], daughter of PIERRE Achard "le Folâtre" & his wife ---. The primary source which confirms her parentage and marriage has not yet been identified.
c) ADRALD . The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified.
The relationship between the following two family sub-groups and the above is unknown, and is not necessarily agnatic.
1. ---.
a) INGELELM (-after [987/90]). "Rotbertus clericus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [987/90] subscribed by "…Acfredi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris sui, Ingelelmi consanguinei sui, Die uxoris eius, Ingelelmi filii sui, Arbaldi fratris sui"[518]. m DIE, daughter of ---. "Rotbertus clericus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [987/90] subscribed by "…Acfredi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris sui, Ingelelmi consanguinei sui, Die uxoris eius, Ingelelmi filii sui, Arbaldi fratris sui"[519]. Ingelelm & his wife had one child:
i) INGELELM (-after [987/90]). "Rotbertus clericus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [987/90] subscribed by "…Acfredi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris sui, Ingelelmi consanguinei sui, Die uxoris eius, Ingelelmi filii sui, Arbaldi fratris sui"[520].
b) ARBALD (-after [987/90]). "Rotbertus clericus" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [987/90] subscribed by "…Acfredi vicecomitis, Bosoni fratris sui, Ingelelmi consanguinei sui, Die uxoris eius, Ingelelmi filii sui, Arbaldi fratris sui"[521].
2. ACFRED (-after [975]). "Walda" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Toarcinse in villa…Monte Paludio" to St Cyprien by charter dated [975?] subscribed by "Acfredi senioris sui, Adraldi filii sui, Arberti filii sui"[522]. m WALDA, daughter of ---. "Walda" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Toarcinse in villa…Monte Paludio" to St Cyprien by charter dated [975?] subscribed by "Acfredi senioris sui, Adraldi filii sui, Arberti filii sui"[523].
a) ADRALD (-after [975]). "Walda" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Toarcinse in villa…Monte Paludio" to St Cyprien by charter dated [975?] subscribed by "Acfredi senioris sui, Adraldi filii sui, Arberti filii sui"[524].
b) ARBERT (-after [975]). "Walda" donated property "in pago Pictavo in vicaria Toarcinse in villa…Monte Paludio" to St Cyprien by charter dated [975?] subscribed by "Acfredi senioris sui, Adraldi filii sui, Arberti filii sui"[525].
BOSON [II] de Châtellerault, son of HUGUES [I] Vicomte de Châtellerault & his wife Gerberge --- (-[1095] or after). "Hugo vicecomes de Castello Airaudi…et uxor sua Girberga" renounced rights in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated to [1055], which refers to "filios enim quos habebant non permittebat Deus diu vivere" and "Bosone…eorum filio"[526]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. "Boso vicecomes de Castello Ayraudi" confirmed the renunciation of rights by "pater meus Hugo vicecomes et mater mea Erberga" in favour of Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers, by charter dated to [1076][527]. "…Boso vicecomes de Castello Ayraudi…" affirmed the actions of "Amatus [archiepiscopi Burdagelensisi Legatique apostolici]" in the charter dated [1090][528].
m ([1075] ALIENOR de Thouars, daughter of AIMERY [IV] Vicomte de Thouars & his first wife Aremgarde de Mauléon. "Bossonis vicecomitis, Aimerici filius eius, Adenordis vicecomitissæ" witnessed a charter dated [1082] under which "Erchembaldus Grenulla" donated property to Saint-Jean d'Angély[529]. The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified. "Boso vicecomes et uxor eius Adenors et filii eorum" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 1088 subscribed by "Bosonis vicecomitis et Aenoris uxoris eius et filiorum ipsorum Aimerici et Bosonis et sororis eorum Gisberge"[530]. "Willelmus Goscelinus monachus Sancti Cipriani" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1088] subscribed by "Boso vicecomes, Ainors uxor, filii ipsorum Aimericus, Boso et Petrus"[531]. "Castri Araldus vicecomes…Boso…cum uxore Adenorde et filio Aimerico" donated property "allodium…in Brigisensi pago apud villam Culturas" to the abbey of Saint-Florent near Saumur by undated charter subscribed by "filii eius minoris Bosonis"[532].
Boson [II] & his wife had five children:
1. AIMERY [I] (-Abbaye de Noyers 7 Nov before 1144, bur Abbaye de Noyers). "Bossonis vicecomitis, Aimerici filius eius, Adenordis vicecomitissæ" witnessed a charter dated [1082] under which "Erchembaldus Grenulla" donated property to Saint-Jean d'Angély[533]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. "Boso vicecomes et uxor eius Adenors et filii eorum" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 1088 subscribed by "Bosonis vicecomitis et Aenoris uxoris eius et filiorum ipsorum Aimerici et Bosonis et sororis eorum Gisberge"[534]. "Willelmus Goscelinus monachus Sancti Cipriani" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1088] subscribed by "Boso vicecomes, Ainors uxor, filii ipsorum Aimericus, Boso et Petrus"[535]. "Castri Araldus vicecomes…Boso…cum uxore Adenorde et filio Aimerico" donated property "allodium…in Brigisensi pago apud villam Culturas" to the abbey of Saint-Florent near Saumur by undated charter subscribed by "filii eius minoris Bosonis"[536]. "Aimerico vicecomes de Castro Arraudi" donated property to the abbey of Fontevraud with the consent of "Boso fratre meo" by charter dated to [1108/1115/16][537]. m AMAUBERGE [Dangerose], daughter of ---. "Aimericus Castri Araudi vicecomes" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux on the advice of "matris mee Adenoris et uxoris mee Dangerose fratrumque meorum Bosonis et Petri" by charter dated 1109[538]. She left her husband to live with Guillaume IX Duke of Aquitaine, Guillaume VII Comte de Poitou, for which he was excommunicated. Orderic Vitalis recounts that "Hildegarde Ctss de Poitou" complained to the synod of Reims, held in Oct 1119 by Pope Calixtus II, that her husband had abandoned her for "Malberge wife of the vicomte de Châtellerault"[539]. Aimery [I] & his wife had five children:
a) HUGUES [II] (-before 1176). His parentage is confirmed by the charter dated [1170/75] under which "Ugo vicecomes Castri Eiraudi" confirmed a donation to the abbey of Bécheron by "Aimericus pater meus" with the consent of "Guillelmo filio meo"[540]. Vicomte de Châtellerault.
- see below.
b) RAOUL (-[1190]). "Hugo vicecomes Castri Airaudi et Radulphus frater eius…" witnessed the charter dated 27 May 1152 under which "Alienora…ducissa Aquitanorum et Normannorum" donated property to Saint-Maixent[541]. Seigneur de Faye-le-Vineuse. m (before 1144) ELISABETH de Faye, daughter and heiress of AIMERY Sire de Faye & his wife ---. The primary source which confirms her parentage and marriage has not yet been identified. Raoul & his wife had five children:
i) RAOUL (-before 1210). The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified. Seigneur de Faye.
ii) GRECIE . The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified. "Uxoris meæ Griciæ…" consented to the donation by "Ursio dominus Fractævallensis" by charter dated to 1177[542]. "Uxor mea Gricia…" consented to the donation by "Ursio dominus Fracte Vallis" by charter dated 1186[543]. m URSO Sire de Fréteval et de Meslay, son of NIVELON [III] Sire de Fréteval & his [first/second] wife [Agatha ---/Adelais ---] (-after 1186).
iii) SIBYLLE (-10 May 1219). The Chronicon Gaufredi Vosiensis names "Sibylla filia Radulfi de Faya, qui fuit frater Guillelmi Vicecomitis de Castelleyrac" as wife of "Ebolus qui ex baptismo Archambaldus"[544]. Her marriage is dated by the 1174 charter under which "Ebolus vicecomes Ventedornensis" granted exemptions from taxes to Notre-Dame de Dalon with the consent of "vicecomitissa" (unnamed)[545]. Her name is confirmed by the Chronique de Geoffroy de Vigeois which names "Ebolo filio Eboli et Sybillæ"[546]. m ([1170/74]) EBLES [IV] "Archambaud" Vicomte de Ventadour, son of EBLES [III] Vicomte de Ventadour & his second wife Adelais de Montpellier (-1214 or after).
iv) EUSTACHE (-1184). The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified.
v) GUILLAUME . The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified. 1201/24.
c) ELEONORE (-after Mar 1130). “Willelmus…dux Aquitanorum” donated property to “ecclesiæ B. Hilarii de Cella” (La Celle, outside Poitiers) granted by “Gaufredus avus et Guillelmus pater mei” by charter dated 3 Mar 1130, subscribed by “Willielmi ducis Aquitanorum, Aenordis comitissæ, Alienordis filiæ eorum, Wilelmi Aigres filii eorum”[547]. The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified. m (before 1122) as his first wife, GUILLAUME X Duke of Aquitaine [GUILLAUME VIII Comte de Poitou], son of GUILLAUME IX Duke of Aquitaine, GUILLAUME VII Comte de Poitou & his wife Philippa [Mathilde] de Toulouse (1099-Santiago de Compostela 9 Apr 1137, bur Santiago de Compostela).
d) AMABLE . The Historia Pontificum et Comitum Engolismensis names "filia Vicecomitis Castelli-Airaudi…Amabilis" as mother of Comte Vulgrin [II]'s two sons "posterioribus natu…Fulconi et Gausfrido Martelli"[548]. 1140. m as his second wife, VULGRIN [II] Comte d'Angoulême, son of GUILLAUME V "Taillefer" Comte d'Angoulême & his wife Vitapoi de Bezaunes et de Beanuges [Albret] (-16 Sep 1140).
e) AOIS . The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified.
2. BOSON . "Castri Araldus vicecomes…Boso…cum uxore Adenorde et filio Aimerico" donated property "allodium…in Brigisensi pago apud villam Culturas" to the abbey of Saint-Florent near Saumur by undated charter subscribed by "filii eius minoris Bosonis"[549]. "Boso vicecomes et uxor eius Adenors et filii eorum" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 1088 subscribed by "Bosonis vicecomitis et Aenoris uxoris eius et filiorum ipsorum Aimerici et Bosonis et sororis eorum Gisberge"[550]. "Willelmus Goscelinus monachus Sancti Cipriani" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1088] subscribed by "Boso vicecomes, Ainors uxor, filii ipsorum Aimericus, Boso et Petrus"[551]. "Aimericus Castri Araudi vicecomes" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux on the advice of "matris mee Adenoris et uxoris mee Dangerose fratrumque meorum Bosonis et Petri" by charter dated 1109[552]. "Aimerico vicecomes de Castro Arraudi" donated property to the abbey of Fontevraud with the consent of "Boso fratre meo" by charter dated to [1108/1115/16][553]. [1140].
3. PIERRE (-after 1135). "Willelmus Goscelinus monachus Sancti Cipriani" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated [1088] subscribed by "Boso vicecomes, Ainors uxor, filii ipsorum Aimericus, Boso et Petrus"[554]. "Aimericus Castri Araudi vicecomes" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux on the advice of "matris mee Adenoris et uxoris mee Dangerose fratrumque meorum Bosonis et Petri" by charter dated 1109[555]. Bishop of Poitiers 1130, deposed 1135.
4. ACFRED . [1090].
5. GISBERGE . "Boso vicecomes et uxor eius Adenors et filii eorum" donated property to St Cyprien by charter dated 1088 subscribed by "Bosonis vicecomitis et Aenoris uxoris eius et filiorum ipsorum Aimerici et Bosonis et sororis eorum Gisberge"[556]. Nun at Fontevrault 1088.
HUGUES [II] de Châtellerault, son of AIMERY [I] Vicomte de Châtellerault & his wife Amauberge [Dangeureuse] --- (-before 1176). His parentage is confirmed by the charter dated [1170/75] under which "Ugo vicecomes Castri Eiraudi" confirmed a donation to the abbey of Bécheron by "Aimericus pater meus" with the consent of "Guillelmo filio meo"[557]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. "…Hugonis vicecomitis de Castro Ayraldi…" subscribed the charter dated [1047] under which "Guilelmus…princeps Arvernorum" donated property to the abbey of Charroux[558]. "Hugo vicecomes Castri Airaudi et Radulphus frater eius…" witnessed the charter dated 27 May 1152 under which "Alienora…ducissa Aquitanorum et Normannorum" donated property to Saint-Maixent[559].
m firstly AENOR, daughter of ---. The primary source which confirms her marriage has not yet been identified. [1140].
m secondly ALIX d'Alençon Dame de Montgommery et de Sonnois, daughter of JEAN [I] Comte d'Alençon & his wife Beatrix du Maine (-after 1220). Her parentage and marriage are confirmed by the charter dated May 1235 under which her son "Hamericus vicecomes de Castro Heraudi" confirmed privileges granted to Perseigne abbey by "Guillermi quondam comitis Pontivii et Roberti comitis Alenchonis et Sagonensis domini…avunculi nostri"[560]. The chronology of her family suggests that it is unlikely that she was born much before [1155]. The primary source which confirms her name has not yet been identified.
Hugues [II] & his first wife had two children:
1. AIMERY (-[1170]). The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified.
2. GUILLAUME (-Acre 1188). "Guillelmo filio meo" consented to the confirmation by "Ugo vicecomes Castri Eiraudi" of a donation to the abbey of Bécheron by "Aimericus pater meus" by charter dated [1170/75][561]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. m as her first husband, MARGUERITE de Mortemer, daughter of --- (-after 1190). "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron by charter dated Oct 1223 which names "fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo"[562]. Her family origin is confirmed by an enquiry into the rights of the vicomte de Châtellerault to "castro Sancti Remigii", one witness testifying that "Jocelinus de Montoere" held "Castri-Aeraudi…castrum…ratione vicecomitisse castri Aeraudi uxoris sue", and that "dominus Radulfus de Mortemer" succeeded him "pro tutela filiorum et filiarum dicti Jocelini qui erant sui nepotes" (although as shown below, it is more likely that the heirs to Châtellerault were born from Ralph´s sister´s first marriage)[563]. She married secondly (1188) Joscelin de Lezay dit de Montoiron, who succeeded as Vicomte de Châtellerault. Benedict of Peterborough names "…Jocelinus de Munmorenc, vicecomes de Castello Haraldi…" among those who died at the siege of Acre in 1190[564]. Guillaume & his wife had [six] children:
a) [GUILLAUME (-after Oct 1223). "Fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo" are named in the charter dated Oct 1223 under which "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron[565]. It is possible that the first three, unrecorded elsewhere, were uterine brothers of Aimery, sons of another marriage of his mother's, although their being named before their brother Hugues suggests that they were older than him and therefore not the sons of Joscelin de Lezay.]
b) [RENAUD (-after Oct 1223). "Fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo" are named in the charter dated Oct 1223 under which "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron[566]. It is possible that the first three, unrecorded elsewhere, were uterine brothers of Aimery, sons of another marriage of his mother's, although their being named before their brother Hugues suggests that they were older than him and therefore not the sons of Joscelin de Lezay.]
c) [GUY (-after Oct 1223). "Fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo" are named in the charter dated Oct 1223 under which "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron[567]. It is possible that the first three, unrecorded elsewhere, were uterine brothers of Aimery, sons of another marriage of his mother's, although their being named before their brother Hugues suggests that they were older than him and therefore not the sons of Joscelin de Lezay.]
d) HUGUES [III] (-after 27 Dec 1202). "Fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo" are named in the charter dated Oct 1223 under which "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron[568]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. “Hugonis domini Castri Airaudi” consented to a donation by “G[alfridus] decanus” of the church at Poitiers by charter dated to [21 Apr 1196/6 Apr 1197][569]. He was imprisoned by the English in 1202. Ralph of Coggeshall records that "…Gaufridum de Lucinan et Hugonem Brunum et Andream de Caveni et vicecomitem de Castro-Eraldi et Reimundum Tuarz et Savarium de Mauleun et Hugonem Baugii" were captured, together with "Arturum nepotem nostrum" [Arthur Duke of Brittany] after they rebelled and attempted to capture "castellum de Mirabel" where "regina Alienor avia Arturi" was living, dated to 1202[570]. King John ordered that "Vic Cast Araldi" should be sent to Normandy, dated 27 Dec 1202[571]. At an enquiry into the rights of the vicomte de Châtellerault to "castro Sancti Remigii", one witness testified that "dominus Hugo de Surgeres" held Châtellerault after the death of "vicecomes Hugo de Castro-Aeraudi" when "domino Aemerico de Castro-Aeraudi" refused to take possession[572]. m ([1200]) [as her first husband,] EUSTACHIE de Mauléon, daughter of RAOUL Sire de Mauléon & his wife Alix Chabot (-after 3 Feb 1244). A charter dated 1230 records the donation to Talmond by "Eustachia quondam vicecomitissa Castri Ayraudi", confirming the donation by "domina Aalis de Malleone mater mea" and with the consent of "domini mei S. de Malleone fratris mei"[573]. "Eustachia quondam vicecomitissa Castri Ayraudi, filia Radulfi de Maloleone bonæ memoriæ" donated property "in parrochia et in villa de Tessoele" to Absie, for the souls of "patris mei Radulfi de Maloleone, Aeliz matris meæ, Savarici fratris mei et Clemenciæ filiæ meæ", by charter dated Oct 1239[574]. "Eustachia quondam filia Radulphi domini de Maloleone et quondam vicecomitissa Castri Ayrardi" donated property to the abbey of l'Absie by charter dated Mar 1239 (maybe O.S.)[575]. King Henry III granted letters of protection to "Eustachia de Ardena, quondam soror Savarici de Malo Leone", dated 1242[576]. This document also suggests her possible second marriage to --- de Ardena (who has not otherwise been identified). Hugues [III] & his wife had one child:
i) CLEMENCE (-before 13 May 1239). “Gaufridus de Lizegnan” did homage to Louis VIII King of France for “vicecomitatu Castri Eraudi, qui provenit michi ex parte Clementie uxoris mee, filie Hugonis quondam vicecomitis Castri Eraudi” by charter dated May 1224[577]. "G de Lezigniaco dominus Volventi et Maraventi" issued a charter dated "ante Pentecosto 1239" which records a prior donation by "nobilis mulier Clemencia vicecomitissa quondam Castri Eraudi uxor nostra defuncta"[578]. "Eustachia quondam vicecomitissa Castri Ayraudi, filia Radulfi de Maloleone bonæ memoriæ" donated property "in parrochia et in villa de Tessoele" to Absie, for the souls of "patris mei Radulfi de Maloleone, Aeliz matris meæ, Savarici fratris mei et Clemenciæ filiæ meæ", by charter dated Oct 1239[579]. An enquiry into "foresta de Moleria" records that "dominum Aymericum de Castro-Airaudi" held "Castri-Airaudi vicecomitatum" for "neptis sue" who later married "domini Gaufridi de Lezigniaco" and died "sine herede"[580]. m (before May 1224) as his first wife, GEOFFROY de Lusignan Seigneur de Vouvent, son of GEOFFROY de Lusignan Seigneur de Vouvent & his first wife Eustachie Chabot Dame de Vouvent (-after 1248). Vicomte de Châtellerault 1224.
e) ELEONORE . The primary source which confirms her parentage has not yet been identified. 1184.
f) AIMERY (-after Oct 1223). "Hamericus clericus filius domini Guillelmi Castri Ayraudi et Margarite uxoris eius" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron by charter dated Oct 1223 which names "fratres sui Guillelmus…et Renaudus et Guido et Hugo"[581].
Hugues [II] & his second wife had one child:
3. AIMERY [II] ([1170/76]-1240 or after). The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified. The chronology of his mother´s family suggests that he must have been born late in his father´s life. At an enquiry into the rights of the vicomte de Châtellerault to "castro Sancti Remigii", one witness testified that "dominus Hugo de Surgeres" held Châtellerault after the death of "vicecomes Hugo de Castro-Aeraudi" when "domino Aemerico de Castro-Aeraudi" refused to take possession[582]. An enquiry into "foresta de Moleria" records that "dominum Aymericum de Castro-Airaudi" held "Castri-Airaudi vicecomitatum" for "neptis sue" who later married "domini Gaufridi de Lezigniaco" and died "sine herede"[583]. Vicomte de Châtellerault. “Hemericus vicecomes Castri-Eraudi, Ala uxor quondam Roberti filii Ernesii, et Robertus Malet" relinquished "castrum de Esseio" in return for "terram et redditus apud Escocheium" by charter dated to [1220][584]. The family relationship between the three participants is explained in another charter dated to [1220] which records that “Hemerico vicecomiti Castri-Eraudi, Alæ uxori Roberti Ernesii et Roberto Malet, Roberti comitis Alenconii heredibus" assigned property for "castri de Esseio"[585]. "Hamericus vicecomes de Castro Heraudi" confirmed privileges granted to Perseigne abbey by "Guillermi quondam comitis Pontivii et Roberti comitis Alenchonis et Sagonensis domini…avunculi nostri" by charter dated May 1235[586]. "Haimericus vicecomes Castri Eraudi" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux by charter dated Mar 1239 which names "Haimerici avi mei"[587]. "Haymericus vicecomes Castri Eraudi" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux by charter dated 1240 which names "nobilis mulier Agatha uxor eiusdem Haymerici vicecomitis et Johannes filius eorumdem"[588]. m AGATHA, daughter of ---. "Haymericus vicecomes Castri Eraudi" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux by charter dated 1240 which names "nobilis mulier Agatha uxor eiusdem Haymerici vicecomitis et Johannes filius eorumdem"[589]. Aimery [II] & his wife had one child:
a) JEAN (-before 1290, bur Saint-André de Gouffern). "Haymericus vicecomes Castri Eraudi" donated property to Saint-Denis en Vaux by charter dated 1240 which names "nobilis mulier Agatha uxor eiusdem Haymerici vicecomitis et Johannes filius eorumdem"[590]. Sire de Sonnois et de Montgommery. "Johannes vicecomes de Castriheraudi et dominus Sagonensis" donated revenue from Peray to Perseigne abbey, confirming the donation made by "bone memorie Roberti quondam comitis Alentionis avunculi patris mei", by charter dated Apr 1263[591]. m MATHILDE de Dammartin, daughter of SIMON de Dammartin Comte d'Aumâle et de Ponthieu & his wife Marie de Ponthieu (before [1220]-after Jan 1257). The Chronicle of Alberic de Trois-Fontaines refers to, but does not name, the four daughters of "comes de Pontivo Symon" (in order) as the wives of "rex Castelle de Hispanie Fernandus…filius vicecomitis de Castro Araudi…filius comitis de Augo…comes de Roceio"[592]. The wording of this passage means that the husband of this Dammartin daughter was not Aimery [II] Vicomte de Châtellerault, as shown in many secondary sources, which would in any case be chronologically impossible, but his son[593]. In addition, the full passage appears to indicate that the wife of "filius vicecomitis de Castro Airaudi" was the oldest of the four daughters as she is referred to "alteram natu maiorem", even though her husband is mentioned second in the list. This would seem surprising considering that the county of Ponthieu was inherited by Jeanne, wife of Fernando III King of Castile. The charter dated Aug 1237, quoted in full in the document NORTHERN FRANCE, under which her parents name their daughter Jeanne "primogenite nostre J. …regine Yspanie et Castelle", confirms that Jeanne was indeed the oldest daughter[594]. One possible explanation of Alberic´s text is that he intended to indicate that the daughter whose husband was named second in his list was the oldest of the remaining daughters, although such a reference would seem superfluous. Interestingly, Butkens states, in his commentary relating to the Dammartin-Ponthieu family, that (1) this daughter married "le fils du Vicomte de Chastellerault" and (2) that she was the oldest daughter[595], the latter statement presumably being based on a literal interpretation of the passage in Alberic which, as explained above, is contradicted by the charter dated Aug 1237. Butkens, in the same passage, says that "le fils du Vicomte de Chastellerault…n´en eust pas de lignée" (from his wife, Simon´s daughter), although as shown below this statement is incorrect. The wife of Vicomte Jean was named Mathilde, as shown by the charter dated Jan 1256 under which "Matildis nostra uxor" confirmed a donation to the abbey of Bécheron by "Johannes vicecomes Castri Ayraudi"[596]. Mathilde was presumably named after her paternal grandmother. The charter dated 1291, under which "Jean de Harcourt chevalier et Jeanne vicomtesse de Châtellerault sa femme, fille de Jean vicomte de Châtellerault" confirmed all the donations to Saint-André-en-Gouffern made by their predecessors[597], indicates that Mathilde was the mother of Jean´s daughter Jeanne, as other donations to Saint-André-en-Gouffern which are recorded in the same source were made by the comtes de Ponthieu (ancestors of Mathilde), not by the vicomtes de Châtellerault. If it is correct that Mathilde was the second daughter of Simon de Dammartin and his wife, it is likely that she was married after her sister Jeanne, whose marriage can be dated to before Aug 1237. Jean & his wife had one child:
i) JEANNE ([1243/47]-16 May 1315). Dame de Lillebonne. Her birth date is estimated on the assumption that she was an adolescent at the time of her first marriage, but young enough to have had three children born after [1275] by her second husband. "Johanna de Castro Ayraudi relicta Gaufridi de Lesigniaco" swore homage to Saint-Maixent for certain property by charter dated 4 Mar 1275[598]. "Jean de Harcourt chevalier et Jeanne vicomtesse de Châtellerault sa femme, fille de Jean vicomte de Châtellerault" confirmed all the donations to Saint-André-en-Gouffern made by their predecessors by charter dated 1291[599]. This document also confirms that Jeanne must have been the daughter of Mathilde de Dammartin, as other donations to Saint-André-en-Gouffern which are recorded in the same source were made by the comtes de Ponthieu not by the vicomtes de Châtellerault. "Johan saignour de Harecourt et…Johanne fame doudit Johan fille et heir…debonne memoire Johan iadis vicomte de Chatel-Heraut et saignour de Soonnays" recognised the privileges of Perseigne abbey by charter dated Mar 1291[600]. m firstly (1259) GEOFFROY de Lusignan Seigneur de Jarnac et de Château-Larcher, son of HUGUES [XI] "le Brun" de Lusignan Comte de la Marche et d'Angoulême & his wife Isabelle Ctss d'Angoulême (-[Jun 1272/Mar 1274]). m secondly ([1275]) as his second wife, JEAN [II] “le Preux” Seigneur d´Harcourt, son of JEAN [I] Sire d´Harcourt & his wife Alix de Beaumont (-21 Dec 1302). Vicomte de Châtellerault by right of his wife, Maréchal de France, Amiral de France.
B. VICOMTE de CHÂTELLERAULT (MAINGOT, SEIGNEURS de SURGERES) 1. GUILLAUME Maingot (-after 1174). "…Willelmus Mangat, Theobaldus Chabot…" witnessed the marriage contract between "Johanni filio Henrici…regis Angliæ" and "Humbertus comes Mauriensis et marchio Italiæ…filia…primogenita…Aalis" dated 1173[601]. "Guillelmus Maengoti et Girbertus frater meus" granted duty exemptions to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères by charter dated 1174[602]. "Willelmus Maingot et Willelmus Maingot filius meus" donated property "in feodis Vulventi" to Absie, for the soul of "domnæ Bertæ uxoris meæ defunctæ", by charter dated 1177[603]. m [firstly] BERTHE de Rancon, daughter of GEOFFROY [III] de Rancon Sire de Taillebourg & his wife --- (-before 1177). Her marriage is confirmed by the charter dated 29 Aug 1217 under which her son "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, for the souls of "domini Willelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mæ et dominæ Bartholomeæ uxoris meæ et Hugonis de Surgeriis et Gaufridi de Surgeriis fratrum meorum"[604]. "Willelmus Maingot et Willelmus Maingot filius meus" donated property "in feodis Vulventi" to Absie, for the soul of "domnæ Bertæ uxoris meæ defunctæ", by charter dated 1177[605]. [m secondly [ORENGARDE/DOUCE], [widow of HUGUES [IX] de Lusignan], daughter of ---.] A charter dated 1168 records a donation of property to the Knights Hospitallers by "Hugo de Lusignan, Dulcia uxor et Alamanda filia eiusdem"[606]. Her second marriage is suggested by the document, dated (by Delisle) to [1209], under which "comes Augi" (Raoul de Lusignan "d´Exoudun" Comte d´Eu, see below) pledged his lands for his homage to Philippe II King of France, and that of "fratres sui comes Marchie et vicecomes Castri Eraudi"[607]. Assuming that this document is correctly dated, "vicecomes Castri Eraudi" at the time was Hugues de Surgères. A second marriage of Raoul´s mother would be the only way in which Hugues de Surgères could be correctly called "frater" of Hugues [X] de Lusignan and Raoul de Lusignan Comte d´Eu. It is also possible, assuming that the 1168 does not refer to Hugues [IX] de Lusignan, that Guillaume Maingot´s second wife was Hugues [IX]´s known wife Orengarde. If Orengarde/Douce can correctly be identified as the [second] wife of Hugues [IX], and mother of Raoul, it is likely that she was heiress of Exoudun which was transmitted to Raoul. Guillaume & his [first] wife had two children:
a) GUILLAUME Maingot (-after 1218). "Willelmus Maingot et Willelmus Maingot filius meus" donated property "in feodis Vulventi" to Absie, for the soul of "domnæ Bertæ uxoris meæ defunctæ", by charter dated 1177[608]. "Willelmus Maengoti filius Willelmi Maengoti et domine Berthe Gaufridi de Rancone filie" relinquished revenue from "molendinis de Bayo" to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères by charter dated to [1195][609]. "Hugo de Surgeriis vicecomes Castri Airaudi" confirmed the donation of rights at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent by "Willelmus Maengo dominus de Surgeriis, frater noster", in the presence of "Guaufrido de Surgeriis fratre nostro milite", by charter dated 29 Apr 1208[610]. "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, with the consent of "Willelmi Maengoti primogeniti filii mei…miles et Hugo tunc temporis valetus, filii mei", for the souls of "domini Willelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mæ et dominæ Bartholomeæ uxoris meæ et Hugonis de Surgeriis et Gaufridi de Surgeriis fratrum meorum", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[611]. "Willelmus Maingoti filius Willelmi Maingoti et domine Berte filie G. de Rancone" donated property to the Templars, with the consent of "W. filius eius", by charter dated 1217, witnessed by "domina Bartolomea uxor predicti Willelmi…"[612]. "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated wine from "magni feodo de Alnisio" to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, for the souls of "Guillelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mee et Hugonis fratris mei vicecomitis Castri Ayraudi", by charter dated 1218, witnessed by "Guillelmi filii mei primogeniti…"[613]. m BARTHOLOMEE, daughter of ---. Her marriage is confirmed by the charter dated 29 Aug 1217 under which her son "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, for the souls of "domini Willelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mæ et dominæ Bartholomeæ uxoris meæ et Hugonis de Surgeriis et Gaufridi de Surgeriis fratrum meorum"[614]. Guillaume & his wife had two children:
i) GUILLAUME Maingot (-before Nov 1239). "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, with the consent of "Willelmi Maengoti primogeniti filii mei…miles et Hugo tunc temporis valetus, filii mei", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[615]. "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated wine from "magni feodo de Alnisio" to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, for the souls of "Guillelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mee et Hugonis fratris mei vicecomitis Castri Ayraudi", by charter dated 1218, witnessed by "Guillelmi filii mei primogeniti…"[616]. m SIBYLLE, daughter of --- (-after 6 Jun 1242). A charter dated Nov 1239 records an agreement between "Guillermum Maengoti" and l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, later confirmed by "Guillermum et Hugonem filios ipsius et Sibillam relictam eius, tutricem jamdictorum Guillermi et Hugonis"[617]. King Henry III granted letters of protection to "Sibilla domina de Surgeres", dated 6 Jun 1242[618]. Guillaume & his wife had two children:
(a) GUILLAUME . "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, with the consent of "Willelmi Maengoti primogeniti filii mei…miles et Hugo tunc temporis valetus, filii mei", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[619]. A charter dated Nov 1239 records an agreement between "Guillermum Maengoti" and l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, later confirmed by "Guillermum et Hugonem filios ipsius et Sibillam relictam eius, tutricem jamdictorum Guillermi et Hugonis"[620]. "Guillermus Maengoti miles dominus Surgeriarum" donated property to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, "ratione Hugonis de Surgeriis militis defuncti avunculi nostri", by charter dated Sep 1254[621].
(b) HUGUES . "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, with the consent of "Willelmi Maengoti primogeniti filii mei…miles et Hugo tunc temporis valetus, filii mei", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[622]. A charter dated Nov 1239 records an agreement between "Guillermum Maengoti" and l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères, later confirmed by "Guillermum et Hugonem filios ipsius et Sibillam relictam eius, tutricem jamdictorum Guillermi et Hugonis"[623].
ii) HUGUES Maingot . "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, with the consent of "Willelmi Maengoti primogeniti filii mei…miles et Hugo tunc temporis valetus, filii mei", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[624].
b) GEOFFROY de Surgères (-before 29 Aug 1217). "Hugo de Surgeriis vicecomes Castri Airaudi" confirmed the donation of rights at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent by "Willelmus Maengo dominus de Surgeriis, frater noster", in the presence of "Guaufrido de Surgeriis fratre nostro milite", by charter dated 29 Apr 1208[625]. "Willelmus Maengoti dominus de Surgeriis" donated property at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent, for the souls of "domini Willelmi Maengoti patris mei et domine Berthe matris mæ et dominæ Bartholomeæ uxoris meæ et Hugonis de Surgeriis et Gaufridi de Surgeriis fratrum meorum", by charter dated 29 Aug 1217[626].
Guillaume & his [second] wife had one child:
c) HUGUES de Surgères ([1175/80]-Acre 1212). Vicomte de Châtellerault. At an enquiry into the rights of the vicomte de Châtellerault to "castro Sancti Remigii", one witness testified that, after "dominus Radulfus de Mortemer", "dominus Hugo de Surgeres" possessed Châtellerault, a subsequent witness specifying that "dominus Hugo de Surgeres" held Châtellerault after the death of "vicecomes Hugo de Castro-Aeraudi" when "domino Aemerico de Castro-Aeraudi" refused to take possession, while another witness testified that Philippe II "Auguste" King of France had granted Châtellerault to "domino Hugoni de Surgeres"[627]. "Hugo de Surgeriis vicecomes de Castri Araudi" donated property to the abbey of Bécheron by charter dated [1201/04][628]. The 13th century Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d´Angleterre names "Hughes li Bruns et li cuens d´Eu ses freres et Hughes de Surgieres ses freres, qui viscuens estoit del Castel-Eraut..." among those who besieged Savary de Mauléon at "el castiel de Niors", dated to [1205/07] from the context[629]. "Hugo de Surgeriis vicecomes Castri Airaudi" confirmed the donation of rights at Fon-de-Lay made to Saint-Maixent by "Willelmus Maengo dominus de Surgeriis, frater noster", in the presence of "Guaufrido de Surgeriis fratre nostro milite", by charter dated 29 Apr 1208[630]. "Hugues de Surgères" donated rent from "Exoudun" to Fontevraud, confirmed by "Raoul II d´Exoudun", dated May 1208[631]. "Comes Augi" pledged his lands for his homage to Philippe II King of France, and that of "fratres sui comes Marchie et vicecomes Castri Eraudi" dated (by Delisle) to [1209][632]. "Hugo de Surgeriis, vicecomes Castri Airaudi" confirmed that "Hugo, beate Marie Castri Airaudi et beati Hylarii Pictavensis decanus" on his deathbed had bequeathed revenue to Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by charter dated 1211, witnessed by "Radulfo de Mortemario fratre predicti decani…"[633]. The Chronicon Bernardi Iterii records the death at Acre in 1212 of "Hugo de Surgeiras vicecomes de Chastel airau"[634].
2. GIRBERT (-after 1174). "Guillelmus Maengoti et Girbertus frater meus" granted duty exemptions to l´aumonerie de Saint-Gilles de Surgères by charter dated 1174[635].
Iona Miller is a widely-published nonfiction writer for the academic and popular press, clinical hypnotherapist, and multimedia artist. She is an advisor to DNA Decipher Journal (DNADJ), as well as other scientific journals. Her main site is http://ionamiller.weebly.com